Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
World Antimicrobial Resistance Awareness Week
To mark World Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Awareness Week, people are being reminded of the importance of taking antibiotics correctly. The theme of this year’s campaign is: "Act Now: Protect Our Present, Secure Our Future."
Dr Arya Gupta from the School of Health has been looking at AMR, how big a problem it is and what research is being carried out at Leeds Beckett University to help tackle this problem.
Antimicrobial Resistance is when a microbe (bacteria, fungi, viruses and parasites) evolves/changes so that they are no longer affected by the medicines once used to target them. The medicines here refer to antimicrobials.
Microbes evolving to become resistant to antimicrobials = antimicrobial resistance.
How big is the problem?
It is a huge problem and affects people all around the world.
In 2021, globally between 1.14 million and 4.71 million deaths occurred due to bacterial AMR (1).
It is forecast that between 2025 and 2050, AMR will directly lead to 39 million deaths and be associated with a further 169 million deaths (2). The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) reported that in 2024, there was an average of 400 AMR related infections per week (3).
Cancer patients are more vulnerable to infections caused by antimicrobial resistant microbes - a study in the US conducted across 168 healthcare facilities between 2018-2022, showed that compared with hospitalised non-cancer patients, hospitalised cancer patients had around 1.5-2x more AMR related infections (4).
How is Leeds Beckett University helping tackle AMR?
My department supports the research I do and by doing so is helping me generate exciting preliminary data that can be fed into relevant funding calls.
One of my research interests is identifying novel treatment regimens for infections caused by resistant bacteria. One avenue to achieve this is by 're-purposing'. This is where PhD students in my research group use non-antibiotic drugs (drugs traditionally used to treat non-bacterial diseases such as cancer) to improve the activity of antibiotics (e.g. penicillin) used to treat bacterial infections.
If you're interested to know more about the research interests of my group, check out our webpage.
What can people do to help fight AMR?
There are a few things we can all do at present and going forward, as misuse is a driver for the development of resistance:
- DO NOT take antibiotics for a cold! Antibiotics are specific for bacteria
- DO NOT save them for later
- DO NOT share with family or friends
- TAKE them as directed
You can learn more about AMR from the Microbiology Society's flagship project Knocking Out AMR at Knocking Out Antimicrobial Resistance.
References
- VizHub - MICROBE
- The Lancet: More than 39 million deaths from antibiotic-resistant infections estimated between now and 2050, suggests first global analysis | Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation
- ESPAUR report 2024 to 2025
- Burden of Antimicrobial Resistance in Adult Hospitalized Patients With Cancer: A Multicenter Analysis - PubMed
Dr Arya Gupta
Senior Lecturer in Biomedical Sciences. Research focus includes antimicrobial resistance (AMR), antimicrobial development (including repurposing), nasal microbiota and pathogen interaction, PoC diagnostic for bacterial infections.
Teaching activities include developing and delivering teaching of Biomedical Science related subjects.
