Antimicrobial resistance
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is the resistance of a microorganism to an antimicrobial medicine to which it was previously sensitive. It develops when a microorganism mutates or acquires a resistance gene. Resistant organisms (including bacteria, viruses, fungi, protozoa and helminths) are able to withstand attack by antimicrobial medicines such as antibiotics, antivirals and antimalarials, so that standard treatments become ineffective and infections persist and may spread to other people.
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Global Health Case Challenge: fighting antibiotic resistance
WHO/Europe provided the case for this year’s Global Health Case Challenge, an annual event hosted by the University of Copenhagen’s School of Global Health, EIT Health and SUND Innovation Hub. The case asked students to consider the following question: How can availability, uptake and usage of rapid diagnostic tools such as point-of-care tests be improved to facilitate responsible use of antibiotics in primary care?
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Key resource
Central Asian and Eastern European Surveillance on Antimicrobial Resistance (CAESAR)A joint initiative to survey, contain and prevent the emergence and spread of antibiotic resistance in the European Region.
Read morePublications
Central Asian and Eastern European Surveillance of Antimicrobial Resistance. Annual report 2016
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Data and statistics
25 000
The number of people out of 400 000 who die every year in the European Region due to an infection with a resistant bacterial strain.
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