Resumen de Momentum on resistance

• INTEREST in antimicrobial resistance may have waxed and waned over the years but the subject has rarely been out of the news of late and the momentum continues to grow. This was demonstrated again last week, which saw: in the UK, the broadcast of a BBC Panorama programme warning of an ‘antibiotic apocalypse’; at EU level, the European Parliament giving its backing to a report on safer healthcare which focuses particularly on the use of antimicrobials; and, at global level, news that the World Health Assembly has agreed a new global action plan urging all countries to have national strategies to combat antimicrobial resistance in place by 2017. In these, as in other developments, the emphasis continues to be on trying to ensure that antimicrobials remain effective for use in human patients, and the need to do that is inarguable. However, the impetus being generated by all the political debate does raise concerns about the extent to which effective antimicrobials will continue also to be available for use in animals.