Drug resistance: the big global health crisis in Covid’s shadow

While pathogens have developed resistance to treatment, there have been no truly new antibiotics in 30 years. Why?

27 January 2022 - 20:40 By Therese Raphael

If we look on the bright side of the past two years, Covid-19 should at least mean we’ll be ready for the next major threat from infectious disease. We know how to prepare, we have more advanced technology, we’ve strengthened public-health protocols. And governments have learnt just how quickly science can move when offered the right incentives. 

All of these learnings are needed already — in the fight against growing antimicrobial resistance (AMR), or infections that don’t respond to drugs...

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