Acutis Insights

Antimicrobial resistance: a major threat to public health

Written by Acutis | Feb 9, 2022 5:00:00 AM

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a complex leading public health threat of the 21st century, with WHO and several other agencies projecting it to cause 10 million deaths per year by 2050.

AMR is the ability of a microorganism to resist the effects of a drug, making it less effective. If this trend continues, the spread of AMR could lead to the emergence of several multi-drug resistance pathogens – many times more lethal than they are today.

In an article published in The Lancet, at least five main categories of intervention strategies require immediate action to combat the severity of antimicrobial resistance. These include:

  • Implementing a broad infection prevention and control strategy;

  • Preventing infections through vaccinations, rather than treating with antibiotics whenever possible;

  • Minimizing the use of antibiotics exposure in the dairy and farming industry;

  • Maintaining higher investment in newer antibiotics, and most importantly;

  • Using antibiotics only after a confirmed diagnosis and an antibiotic susceptibility profile of the causative agent.

Scientists emphasize the urgent need to develop infrastructure and diagnostics tools that allow clinicians to diagnose infection accurately to rapidly narrow the unnecessary use of antibiotics. One of these tools includes accurate, high-quality diagnostic testing for infectious diseases.

As a leader in infectious disease testing, Acutis continues to introduce evolving technology and science to provide our customers with better, more actionable data and ever-more accurate results. Our Reveal™ ​lines of tests are continually refined to meet today's most urgent clinical requirements, with the exacting science and precise detection of key pathogens to prevent misdiagnoses and the potentially inappropriate use of antibiotics.

When treating a patient, choose Acutis Reveal™ for the greatest degree of certainty.