Why should a surge in sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in Europe be a concern across Africa or for people who don’t consider themselves to be at risk? Because it points to a bigger problem: the ease with which drug-resistant infections are now spreading, and not just in hospitals but within the community too.

The speed and scale at which people travel and interact in our interconnected world is increasingly helping to drive this, allowing drug-resistant pathogens to move rapidly through populations and across the world – including between high-income countries and low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where the burden is often greatest and surveillance more limited.

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Some experts believe that the first people to live long enough to reach their 200th birthday may already have been born because future advances in medicine and science will continue to extend life expectancy.

However, whether this proves true or not, it is likely to apply only to the few. For the majority of us, the trend is actually going in the opposite direction, and this may well continue thanks to the rise and spread of bacteria resistant to antibiotics.

The role antibiotics play in medicine cannot be overstated; they have turned once-fatal infections into highly treatable conditions and enabled safe surgery, cancer care and countless other medical advances.

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In 2014, India achieved what many had deemed impossible: it eliminated wild poliovirus. Not long before, it was home to nearly half the world’s unvaccinated children. Yet within a few years, the country mobilised its public-health machinery—door-to-door immunisation, relentless surveillance, rapid outbreak response, and logistics—on a scale and with a level of precision that left no stone unturned. The result was not fleeting but lasting: India became polio-free and has remained so ever since.

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13 February 2026

What do conflict, climate change, pandemics and migration all have in common? Each is recognised as a driver for instability, economic disruption and geopolitical tension, and each now features prominently at the Munich Security Conference. But there is another profound security threat linking them all, one that affects everyone on this planet and yet remains conspicuously absent from the agenda as world leaders gather in Munich this week: the rise and spread of drug-resistant infections.

When geopolitical tensions are stretched and global insecurity heightened, global health invariably suffers. It is not just war itself that cost lives, but also the threat of it. The climate of confrontation and fragmentation that surrounds them can result in resources diverted, cooperation weakened and the collapse of systems set up to protect people. Today, with global insecurity more volatile than at any point since the Cold War, that is exactly what we are now witnessing. And sitting squarely in the middle, at the fault line between health and security, is the escalating antimicrobial resistance (AMR) crisis.

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6 November 2026

Russia’s war in Ukraine may have triggered a new arms race in drone warfare, but it has another enduring and deadly legacy as well: its impact on drug-resistant infections. The conditions of conflict have led to a 10-fold increase in potentially lethal infections, pushing antimicrobial resistance (AMR) to a dangerous new tipping point where the growth of the most difficult to treat, multidrug-resistant infections is now beginning to outpace antibiotic development.

Not long ago, the opposite was the case. Prior to the second world war, and the advent of antibiotics, infections routinely killed more soldiers than combat itself. The US government and military then invested heavily in the discovery, production and global distribution of antibiotics, transforming penicillin from a laboratory curiosity into a drug produced on an industrial scale. Antibiotics became strategically vital — almost as essential as ammunition.

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14 October 2025

Much like the well-known climate threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius, the importance of critical limits in our environment have long been understood as key to help us avoid calamities. So, when we know the world is facing an escalating antimicrobial resistance (AMR) crisis, but there has been no definitive tipping point established, that leaves us on a potentially perilous path.

This week, the World Health Organization (WHO) published a report that suggests we may have now reached such a critical threshold.

Drawing on data from more than 100 countries, the report found that drug-resistant infections have risen significantly in recent years, representing a third of all infections in some regions.

These findings add to a growing body of evidence to suggest the most difficult-to-treat infections are beginning to outpace antibiotic development, either because the right antibiotics are not reaching the people who need them, or because they are not being developed in the first place. As a result, the number of AMR deaths is expected to increase sharply, by 70% by 2050.

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31 May 2025

The systematic analysis of the global burden of bacterial antimicrobial resistance (AMR) 1990–2021 by the GBD 2021 Antimicrobial Resistance Collaborators¹ will help to improve understanding of global trends of AMR, but the authors’ interpretations of the findings leave cause for concern. The fact that AMR mortality is now expected to increase steeply suggests that we have reached a tipping point. Continued reliance on mitigation through prevention and stewardship is key, but could produce diminishing returns.

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14 April 2025 

Brazil must urgently reduce its dependence on imports and improve access to effective and affordable antibiotics—both new and existing ones.

The announcement of Butantan-DV, the new dengue vaccine developed by the Butantan Institute, is a great source of national pride for Brazilians. As the first vaccine entirely developed and produced in Brazil, it will help not only to protect the lives of millions, but also to drive national development. This is the Health Economic-Industrial Complex (CEIS, by its Portuguese acronym) in action and a clear demonstration of how the domestic market can play a strategic role in supporting innovation and strengthening Brazil’s national healthcare system, Sistema Único de Saúde.

This same model, combining innovation, the State’s purchasing power, and partnerships between public laboratories and private companies, can and should also be used to develop and produce other health technologies. Antibiotics, in particular, deserve special attention.

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11 February 2025 

The Independent Panel on Evidence for Action against Antimicrobial Resistance will gather scientific evidence to inform global health policymakers. Here are five areas the panel must consider to be the transformative mechanism it is intended.

Imagine a world where a simple cut could be a death sentence; where routine surgeries become impossible, and common infections transform into untreatable nightmares. This isn’t science fiction — it’s the looming reality of antimicrobial resistance, or AMR, a silent global health emergency that threatens to unravel decades of medical progress.

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24 November 2024

Drug-resistant infections may be a global killer, associated with nearly five million deaths a year, but a fifth of all these deaths occur in just one single country — India. Yet, despite this and being portrayed by the international community as the ground zero of the global antimicrobial resistance (AMR) crisis, India may be the heart of the solution. Because, given its scientific expertise, clinical resources and pharmaceutical sector, India has everything it needs to not only reverse the crisis within its own borders but also to lead the way in the global AMR response.

Such solutions are urgently needed because AMR has now reached an alarming tipping point. Having remained relatively flat for more than three decades, the global number of deaths associated with AMR is now expected to rise sharply. By the year 2050 it could increase by 70% and claim as many as 169 million lives. A key way to prevent this is by developing effective new treatments and ensuring that people get access to them. India is uniquely positioned to deliver on both of these, and, moreover, has a strong track record of doing so.

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