Previous attempts have been made to accurately estimate the global burden of AMR, both to focus policy makers on the extent of the problem and to identify geographical areas with the greatest burden. These estimates have been challenged by unreliable data on resistance and infections and the difficulty of attributing burden to AMR specifically. Patients with longer hospitals stays are more likely to have resistant pathogens than those with shorter stays. Is it AMR that causes these longer hospital stays or is it just that patients who stay longer happen to pick up drug-resistant infections? How can we distinguish between patients who died with resistant pathogens from those who died of resistant pathogens?