Professor Dame Sally Davies, UK’s chief medical officer has announced funding for projects to help fight antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and hence achieve global universal health coverage. The funding is a mix of £6.2 million that will strengthen existing surveillance systems that track AMR trends in Asia and Africa and £12 million to enhance collaborations on health systems research between low- and middle-income countries and the UK. The former fund is expected to come from the Fleming Fund while the latter will be made available through the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Global Health Research program.
The funds for the project were announced at the UN General Assembly where Professor Davies warned that the world cannot accomplish universal health coverage- a UN ambition, without looking into the threat of AMR which causes 700,000 deaths every year. She also stressed on the fact that if AMR continues to follow the current trends, common infections will become more complex and expensive to treat, hence affecting millions. Infection prevention and control measures like immunization, good hygiene and measured antibiotic usage are crucial to achieving universal health coverage through eliminating the threat of AMR.