CIDRAP News: Global antibiotic resistance tracking project launched
“Global charitable foundation Wellcome Trust [Friday] announced a new research project to track and document the burden of disease associated with antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The Global Burden of Disease AMR project will be collecting data from all over the world to create a map of disease and deaths caused by drug-resistant infections, according to a news release from U.K.-based Wellcome, which announced that it will be investing £2.4 million ($3.2 million U.S.) in the project as part of its efforts to address the AMR threat. The U.K. government and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation are providing additional funding…” (Dall, 10/13).

CNBC: Project to tackle potential ‘post-antibiotic apocalypse’ launched with $3.2 million pledge
“…The problem is a serious one, with Wellcome saying that drug-resistant infections already kill 700,000 people each year. The launch comes after Sally Davies, England’s chief medical officer, told the Press Association that the world was facing a ‘dreadful post-antibiotic apocalypse’ if action was not taken immediately…” (Frangoul, 10/13).

Press Association/The Guardian: Antibiotic resistance could spell end of modern medicine, says chief medic
“…Prof Dame Sally Davies said that if antibiotics lose their effectiveness it would spell ‘the end of modern medicine.’ Without the drugs used to fight infections, common medical interventions such as caesarean sections, cancer treatments, and hip replacements would become incredibly risky and transplant medicine would be a thing of the past, she said. ‘We really are facing — if we don’t take action now — a dreadful post-antibiotic apocalypse. I don’t want to say to my children that I didn’t do my best to protect them and their children,’ Davies said…” (10/13).