Each year, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) contributes to the deaths of 35,000 UK residents. AMR results from an inadvertent selection process. The resulting 'superbugs' are either survivors of antibiotic treatments or other bacterial species that received resistance genes from them. Some antibiotic treatments are wholly inappropriate. These drugs only work on bacterial infections. So, prescribing them for viruses is futile. Hospitals, care homes and gyms often require deep-cleaning to remove the superbugs. This doesn't seem to be done systematically. Although banned in Europe (but not the USA), antibiotics are also used as growth-enhancers by some chicken and cattle farmers. The UK's National Audit Office has recently noted that only 1 of the 5 domestic targets for dealing with AMR, seems to be working. Progress has been made in reducing antibiotic use in food-producing animals (hardly the most difficult) (https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/feb/26/uk-falling-short-in-fight-against-rise-of-superbugs-resistant-to-antibiotics). There's actually a danger of 'returning medicine to a pre-antibiotic age'. That return could be speeded by importing US beef and chicken. The UK urgently needs a range of new, wide-spectrum antibiotics and rather more progress on all its domestic anti-AMR targets.
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