Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is defined as the resistance of a micro-organism to an antimicrobial medicine to which it was originally sensitive. Organisms that are able to withstand attack by antimicrobial medicines (e.g. antibiotics, antifungals, antivirals and antimalarials), include bacteria, fungi, viruses and some parasites. 

If antibiotics are lost, society risks returning to the days when those infections now regarded as trivial are in fact fatal. An infected cut could be life-threatening and an illness like pneumonia would again become a mass killer. Without effective antibiotics, procedures designed to help people and ease suffering could actually lead to many more deaths. Chemotherapy, transplants and surgery all rely on the availability of effective antibiotics.

With more than 70 per cent of antibiotic prescribing occurring in primary care, community pharmacy teams have a critical role to play in tackling AMR. Preventing infections will play a major part in tackling antimicrobial resistance because it reduces the need for antibiotics.