Longitude Prize launches AMR Voices: Stories from the frontlines of antibiotic resistance during Covid-19

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Longitude Prize, Nesta Challenges

24 Nov, 2020, 05:31 IST

LONDON, Nov. 24, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- A new collection of international case studies published today during World Antimicrobial Awareness Week 2020, gives a platform to people living with drug-resistant infections, those that have survived them and to the clinicians contending with them, capturing their unique views on Covid-19. 

From the frontlines of the pandemic in the UK, US, South Africa and India, AMR Voices, shows how the real-life experience of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) collides with the realities of Covid-19. Published by Nesta Challenges – home to the Longitude Prize, an £8m prize to accelerate the development of a point-of-care diagnostic test that will conserve antibiotics for future generations – the content is a warning that without action on the slow-moving pandemic of AMR, more lives will be lost and the fundamentals of modern medicine will break down. 

Story highlights: 

  • Dr. Ranj Singh (UK), NHS Emergency Paediatrician and TV presenter, fears the day he tells the parents of a sick child that they've run out of treatment options
  • Ronda Windsor (UK), who lives with a chronic drug-resistant UTI, speaks about the toll the pandemic has taken on her mental health, while also limiting her access to her doctor and medicines
  • Dr. Abdul Ghafur (India) tells of his turn of fate, hospitalised as a Covid-19 patient, and his fears of being ventilated because of his increased exposure to a hospital-acquired infection
  • Vanessa Carter (South Africa) laments that her government has not treated AMR as a public health emergency 
  • Mary Millard (US) reminds us that Sepsis already kills 99,000 per year in the US, putting Covid-19 into perspective. 

Daniel Berman, Global Health Lead, Nesta Challenges, said: "For the people profiled in AMR Voices, life-threatening resistance to antibiotics is not some dystopian fiction, it is something that they have already faced or are still facing today. Covid-19 has made their challenge even more intense. By shining a light on their experiences, we want to challenge readers to ask themselves: can we start addressing AMR before it becomes an all-consuming crisis? 

"The all-hands-on-deck battle against Covid-19 needs to be replicated to address AMR. This includes better strategies for developing new antibiotics, new treatment techniques, continued improvement in stewardship, infection control and hygiene, and accelerated investment towards the development of new rapid diagnostics."

AMR Voices is published today at http://longitudeprize.org