Professor Colin Garner, ANTRUK’s Chief Executive gets Sunday Telegraph Letter to the Editor published on Sunday 18 December 2016 about medical charities with a common interest in tackling antibiotic resistance working together. The text of the Letter is below;
SIR – Your report on the possible underestimate of antibiotic-resistant sepsis deaths is deeply concerning, particularly as sepsis is not alone in causing death from a bacterial infection. Nearly every serious medical condition and treatment will at some stage require antibiotic treatment to prevent life-threatening bacterial infections. Cancer treatment, heart surgery, organ transplantation, lung and skin infections, and Caesarean sections are just a few of the hospital treatments which rely on effective antibiotics – and which would be much riskier if infections could not be controlled. Our charity seeks to tackle this problem through research, education and patient support. We believe, however, that all medical research charities affected by antibiotic resistance should be working together to tackle it. To help achieve this, we would like to see the creation of a national antibiotic resistance steering group.
As Dame Sally Davies, the Chief Medical Officer, has stated, antibiotic resistance threatens all modern medicine.
This impending catastrophe can only be averted if everyone in the third sector works together.
Professor R C Garner
Chief Executive, Antibiotic Research
York