Our Mission

Given the grave threat that antimicrobial resistance presents to public health and hospitals worldwide, we founded this website along with a 501(c)(3) organization, Global AMR, to gather and analyze data related to AMR and increase public awareness around this issue.

Antimicrobial Resistance is a Global Health Concern

Multidrug-resistant (MDR) organisms represent one of humanity’s gravest and most insidious threats. Yet, for a variety of microbiological, socio-economic, and technical reasons, the proliferation of these organisms continues to be widely misunderstood by the general public and largely neglected by clinicians and policy makers alike. Estimates of the costs of MDR infections are staggering: $4.6 billion in the United States (US) [1] and € 1.5 billion in the European Union (EU) per year,[2] with the World Bank estimating that by 2050, as much as 3.8% of the global annual domestic product could be lost due to MDR infections.[3] The human cost is far worse. A recent landmark study in the Lancet estimated that in 2019, 4.95 million deaths worldwide were associated with drug-resistant bacterial infections and that 1.27 million of those deaths were directly due to drug resistance.[4] In terms of causes of death worldwide, such estimates would rank drug-resistant infections higher than malaria, HIV, or tuberculosis.[5] The 2016 Review on Antimicrobial Resistance projected that by 2050, drug-resistant infections could claim as many as 10 million lives annually.[6]

References

1. Nelson, R.E.; Hatfield, K.M.; Wolford, H.; Samore, M.H.; Scott, R.D., II; Reddy, S.C.; Olubajo, B.; Paul, P.; Jernigan, J.A.; Baggs, J. National Estimates of Healthcare Costs Associated With Multidrug-Resistant Bacterial Infections Among Hospitalized Patients in the United States. Clinical Infectious Diseases 2021, 72, S17–S26, doi:10.1093/cid/ciaa1581.

2. European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control; European Medicines Agency The Bacterial Challenge : Time to React : A Call to Narrow the Gap between Multidrug-Resistant Bacteria in the EU and the Development of New Antibacterial Agents; Publications Office: LU, 2009;

3. Drug-Resistant Infections: A Threat to Our Economic Future 2017.

4. Murray, C.J.L.; Ikuta, K.S.; Sharara, F.; Swetschinski, L.; Robles Aguilar, G.; Gray, A.; Han, C.; Bisignano, C.; Rao, P.; Wool, E.; et al. Global Burden of Bacterial Antimicrobial Resistance in 2019: A Systematic Analysis. The Lancet 2022, 399, 629–655, doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(21)02724-0.

5. Vos, T.; Lim, S.S.; Abbafati, C.; Abbas, K.M.; Abbasi, M.; Abbasifard, M.; Abbasi-Kangevari, M.; Abbastabar, H.; Abd-Allah, F.; Abdelalim, A.; et al. Global Burden of 369 Diseases and Injuries in 204 Countries and Territories, 1990–2019: A Systematic Analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019. The Lancet 2020, 396, 1204–1222, doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30925-9.

6. O’Neil, J. Tackling Drug-Resistant Infections Globally: Final Report and Recommendations; London: Review on Antimicrobial Resistance, 2016;