The Global Fight Against Antimicrobial Resistance: Why It Matters to Everyone
Antimicrobial medicines like antibiotics and antifungals are used around the world to treat a range of health challenges from minor skin infections to life threatening conditions like pneumonia. What happens when they stop working? Consider the global impact: every year, more than one million people around the world die because of antimicrobial resistance (AMR)—more than HIV or malaria. AMR is a naturally occurring phenomenon in which pathogens, or germs, develop the ability to defeat the drugs designed to kill them.
To understand the urgency of this crisis, we must also consider how this affects the individual: can your infection be treated and cured? The rise and spread of these drug-resistant pathogens could make receiving routine health care and treating even commonplace ailments difficult or impossible, especially for people with a compromised immune system, like those battling cancer.
“AMR could affect literally every person on this planet,” said Michael Craig, director of the Antimicrobial Resistance Coordination and Strategy Unit at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). “We all get infections, and we expect that we can go to our doctor, take medication and feel better. Imagine if you have a resistant urinary tract infection or your child has a resistant ear infection—how can we make sure we don’t get to this place?”
Addressing this threat requires aggressive action to prevent infections in the first place, improve antibiotic and antifungal use and stop the spread of resistance when it does develop. To fight AMR, we must also recognize that human health is inextricably connected to the health of animals and the environment we all share.
The risk of AMR is also significantly higher in countries without public health infrastructure and access to clean running water and basic hygiene and sanitation. A lack of strong infection prevention and control programs in low- and middle-income countries also contributes to increases in transmission. In fact, most deaths attributed to AMR occur in countries where access to this infrastructure may be lacking. Increased global investment in both developing new drugs and in core public health interventions—like increased vaccination coverage with available vaccines, ensuring access to clean water and sanitation in health care and in communities and strengthening detection and surveillance—is essential to decreasing the rates of AMR-related deaths.
In today’s interconnected world, a drug-resistant pathogen that develops in one region can quickly spread across the globe. Governments, public health organizations, food and agricultural industries and the private sector must work together to protect and save lives. “The challenge with this is the scope and depth of it; we can’t do one thing and fix the problem,” said Craig. “It’s going to take a lot of dedicated effort and a lot of collaboration.”
At the 79th United Nations General Assembly in September 2024, leaders from around the world signed on to an important new set of AMR goals that included a commitment to reducing annual deaths from bacterial AMR by ten percent by 2030. CDC supports these global efforts to detect, respond to, contain and prevent resistant infections. To help inform both U.S. and global programs, CDC also recently partnered with Gallup and the CDC Foundation to develop the Global AMR Monitor, a new resource that proposes using the Gallup World Poll to gather data on AMR knowledge, attitudes and behaviors from more than 140 countries. This information can be used both to develop global policies and educate the public on actions they can take on an individual level to reduce the risk of infection and help prevent drug resistance from developing.
Although AMR is a complex problem, we do not have to wait to make changes to protect ourselves and our world from this urgent threat. Progress is possible, and no one group can tackle this issue alone. “We have to make the tools that we know work more accessible and use them consistently,” said Craig. “We can do these things today.”
The CDC Foundation is seeking funding partners to support the next phase of the AMR monitor. Those interested in learning more can contact Ian Hamilton, senior advancement officer, at ihamliton@cdcfoundation.org.
