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This year’s World Antimicrobial Awareness Week (WAAW) takes place 18–24 November. The week takes place annually to improve awareness and understanding of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and encourage best practice among the public, One Health stakeholders and policymakers.

The latest edition of Microbiology Today is now available to read online. This issue, titled ‘Emerging Opportunities’, brings a positive view on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) with innovative ways of tackling this threat using sustainable resources, such as seaweed and Matuba tree (Ficus natalensis) bark cloth. The issue highlights Access Microbiology the Society’s Open Access platform, the role of microbiologists in space exploration, and bacterial genomics and artificial intelligence (AI).

In January, to kick off the ‘Knocking Out AMR’ project, the Microbiology Society hosted a series of solution-oriented, invite-only workshops dedicated to our priority solution areas: diagnostics, surveillance, therapeutics and vaccines.

Scientists at The University of Warwick have made a breakthrough which could help find new treatments for a deadly infection that can affect up to 40% of hospital patients using mechanical ventilators.

The Microbiology Society welcomes the launch of the UK Government’s new National Action Plan (NAP) to tackle AMR for the period 2024 to 2029.

Researchers have discovered a new bacterial killer that can target common lung infection caused by Burkholderia bacteria that has exciting potential for biotechnological applications.

Research published during World Antimicrobial Awareness Week explores the impact of using recommended chlorine chemicals to tackle Clostridioides difficile, the most common cause of antibiotic associated sickness in healthcare settings globally

A new study from the Quadram Institute and University of East Anglia into sepsis in neonatal babies has uncovered the secrets of the bacteria’s success in causing this life-threatening condition.

Using genomic sequencing, they have found how certain strains of bacteria that usually live harmlessly on the skin can evade control measures by colonising babies’ guts. This will provide new ways to control this threat to babies’ health.
 

Responding to a press release from the UK Department of Health and Social Care and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office announcing a £39 million cash injection for antimicrobial resistance (AMR) research, Professor Gurdyal Besra FRS, President of the Microbiology Society said:

The Microbiology Society has coordinated a response to a call for evidence launched by the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee on the antimicrobial potential of bacteriophages.

The Microbiology Society are coordinating a response to the recently launched government inquiry on the antimicrobial potential of bacteriophages.

Down in the depths of the ocean, scientists believe they may have discovered a treasure trove. Not a sunken chest filled with gold coins and lost riches, but perhaps something even more valuable. A soon to be published study has revealed that the gut microbiomes of deep-sea fish are teeming with new antimicrobial molecules that could fight common foodborne infections. The findings shed a new light on this previously untapped resource and could one day pave the way for new antimicrobial medicines.

An interdisciplinary team of researchers from five research institutes across the UK are developing a “world first” resource for research into the microbiomes of crops.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is an insidious and silent pandemic that is already happening, when bacteria are exposed to levels of antibiotics that do not kill them, they develop ways to overcome further treatments. The latest figures reveal that an estimated 1.2 million people died in 2019 as a direct result of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections and that AMR will cause over 10 million deaths per year by 2050, which is more than deaths from cancer and diabetes combined, and more than the current COVID-19 death toll.

Antimicrobial resistance remains one of the most serious global challenges of our time, with far-reaching impacts on sustainable development, food security and public health. In 2019, an estimated 1.2 million people died as a direct result of antibiotic resistant infections – and the study estimates millions more deaths were indirectly linked. Researchers have now conducted the largest global study to date of antibiotic resistance genes in the human gut microbiome. They found a correlation between the abundance and diversity of resistance genes in healthy people not taking antibiotics and per capita antibiotic use in a country, demonstrating how the impacts of individual antibiotic consumption diffuse throughout the population.

When it comes to disease-causing microbes, bacteria and viruses usually steal the spotlight. But there is another, often overlooked, microbial foe that is a grave cause for concern. Fungal pathogens cause an estimated 1.5 million human deaths and destroy a third of the global crop yield each year. Despite this impact on human health and food security, the number of antifungal drugs available is extremely limited.

Hospices Civils de Lyon (HCL), France, have been involved in antifungal stewardship since 2017, with the aim of optimising the management of invasive fungal infections and containing antifungal resistance. Invasive fungal infections such as invasive candidiasis and invasive aspergillosis are a significant cause of mortality, especially in critically ill patients and immunocompromised patients.