Antibiotic Resistance

Thank you for contacting me about antibiotic resistance.

I agree that this is an important issue to tackle as increasingly widespread use of antibiotics is leading to the organisms causing these infections adapting and surviving. As this resistance develops, it can render treatments for infections less effective and eventually the infections may become untreatable.

The UK's 5 Year Antimicrobial Resistance Strategy, published in 2013, sets out an overarching goal to slow the spread of antibiotic resistance. It aims to improve the knowledge and understanding of antimicrobial resistance, to conserve the effectiveness of existing treatments and to stimulate the development of new antibiotics and therapies.

In response to increased usage of antibiotics in winter months, campaigns such as Stay Well This Winter, run by NHS England take place to increase public awareness of inappropriate prescribing amongst other seasonal concerns.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has published new guidelines covering the effective use of antibiotics. Understanding patterns of antibiotic prescribing and resistance is essential to tackling this problem and it is good news that the number of antibiotic prescriptions by GPs is going down, but there is still work to do. The Government has been working with the Royal College of General Practitioners to provide GPs with suitable tools to reduce levels of inappropriate prescribing.

The UK has led efforts internationally to tackle antimicrobial resistance, including the adoption, in May 2015, of a new World Health Organization Resolution on antimicrobial resistance. In March 2015, it announced the new £195 million Fleming Fund to strengthen surveillance of drug resistance and laboratory capacity in developing countries, will now invest a further £70 million. It will continue to push for further international financing for research and innovation to tackle antibiotic resistance.

Thank you again for taking the time to contact me.