The Resistance - Antimicrobial Resistance through a Covid-19 lens

While the timely use of Antibiotics for sepsis is well recognised, the rise of Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) is a huge threat to global health.

The current pandemic has highlighted our vulnerability to infection and we are now experiencing first hand the public health and economic cost of a pandemic.

We know now what it really means to not have effective diagnostics, treatments and vaccines for an infectious pathogen.

AMR accounts for 700,000 deaths annually.

Antibiotic use is the key driver for AMR. Some use of antibiotics in COVID-19 infections is likely appropriate and some likely inappropriate, so this is where AMR comes in.

Vaccines can help in AMR by reducing the carriage and transmission of AMR pathogens and by reducing the clinical symptoms of certain infections that can result in appropriate antibiotic use.

Vaccines can specifically help reduce AMR within three categories:

1: Vaccines against common bacterial pathogens like Haemophilus Influenzae 2: Vaccines against specific AMR pathogens like Tuberculosis or Gonorrhea 3: Vaccines against viruses that ma result in symptoms then prompting the inappropriate use on antibiotics and this is where a COVID-19 vaccine comes in.

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