Antibiotics are very useful medicines when you are sick and the doctor tells you to take them. However, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a growing global threat to public health. It occurs when bacteria and other microbes, like viruses and fungi, develop resistance to drugs used to treat the infections they cause. Although resistance appears naturally over time, it can accelerate if humans and animals overuse antimicrobial medicines. In the EU alone, it is estimated that infections caused by resistant bacteria are responsible for 35 000 deaths a year.

Public health authorities and experts have referred to the spread of AMR as a 'silent pandemic' that might claim up to 10 million deaths by 2050. In 2019, the World Health Organization declared AMR one of 10 global public health threats, and in 2022, the European Commission identified AMR as one of three priority health threats.

Although your national government is responsible for health policy, EU-funded research aims to help. In 2022, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control published an assessment of the health burden of infections caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the EU/EEA between 2016 and 2020, with the annual number of cases rising from 685 433 to 865 767. EU research policy is aimed at further understanding different aspects of antimicrobial resistance, such as AMR transference across ecosystems and animals. It also helps find and communicate innovative solutions, both technological (new pathogen sequencing) and non-technological (new infection prevention strategies).