Antimicrobial resistance

What it is

Antimicrobials are the drugs that prevent and treat infectious diseases in people and animals. They include antibiotics, antivirals, antifungals and antiparasitics. Be Ready says they underpin modern medicine because surgery, cancer therapy and organ transplants all rely on them to prevent infection. Antimicrobial resistance, or AMR, is what happens when the organisms that cause infection adapt and survive the drug. The World Health Organisation counts it among the top global public health threats, and very few new antibiotics are in development, which is why existing ones have to be used wisely.

Antibiotics are misused in two main ways. The first is treating an infection they cannot help, such as a cold or flu. The second is not taking them as the prescriber instructed. Careless disposal is a third problem, because antibiotics in watercourses and the sea breed resistant organisms in the environment.

What it does to a home

Resistance does not arrive as an event. It shows up when an infection in the household no longer responds to treatment. The household's part is in the medicine cabinet. Take a prescribed course properly, do not keep the rest, do not pass tablets to someone else, and return what is left to the pharmacy. Ask a pharmacist about cold and flu symptoms rather than seeking antibiotics. The same hygiene that limits infectious disease outbreaks, hand washing for 20 seconds at the key moments, covering coughs and cleaning touched surfaces, reduces the infections that need treating in the first place.

Animals count too. Be Ready says to ask a vet before giving an animal antibiotics and to consider vaccinating animals, because vaccination reduces antibiotic use. See animal and plant health.

Who warns you

The NHS publishes information on antibiotic resistance and on hand washing. The government publishes its plans to see antimicrobial resistance contained and controlled by 2040. The Welsh Government and the Scottish Government publish their own AMR information. UKHSA's e-Bug site teaches children hygiene, and the Antibiotic Guardian campaign asks the public to make a pledge.

How the government assesses it

The National Risk Register 2025 does not plot antimicrobial resistance on its acute risk matrix. It treats AMR as a chronic risk, one of the continuous challenges that erode the economy, community and way of life over a longer timeframe, and lists it under biosecurity alongside animal disease, foodborne disease and plant pests. The register says chronic risks can make acute risks more likely and more serious, and gives AMR as its example: a pandemic occurring in an environment of ineffective antibiotics could result in higher deaths from secondary bacterial infections. The detailed assessment of chronic risks is an internal classified document.

Where to look

• NHS on antibiotic resistance at nhs.uk/medicines/antibiotics.
• Antibiotic Guardian at antibioticguardian.com.
• Government AMR collection on gov.uk.
• Related pages: infectious disease outbreaks, animal and plant health.