Combatting antimicrobial resistance

Antimicrobial resistance, or AMR, is one of the major current health concerns.  Resistant strains which have emerged recently include gonorrhoea, tuberculosis, MRSA, and even the bubonic plague. There is also the potential impact of SARS-CoV-2 on the development of AMR, just to add to the mix. 

Obviously there are many global initiatives devoted to tackling the problem, and this feature from Nature describes five key ways in which this is approached. Interestingly, not all are about developing new drugs - changing the way we treat infections is also key.

The five include:

1. Looking for new drugs - especially from hard-to-culture bacteria
2. Using AI
3. New cocktails of drugs
4. Improving patient response
5. Better rapid diagnosis

Notably, this last was the subject of the winner of the AMR Longitude Prize, which we covered here.