UK Chief Medical Officer Dame Sally Davies on antibiotic resistance

Professor Dame Sally Davies, UK chief medical officer, gave an important presentation on antibiotic resistance at the IMB Centre for Superbug Solutions, September 2015. Dame Davies describes the UK action against drug-resistant bacteria and asks the panel 'what is Australia doing in the fight against drug-resistant bacteria?'
Widespread resistance to our arsenal of antibiotics is no longer a threat. It is reality. With no new antibacterial drugs in the commercial pipeline, immediate action is needed to avert a looming healthcare disaster.
The World Health Organisation has declared antibiotic resistant bacteria the world’s biggest health challenge.
Although infectious disease remains the second leading cause of death globally, the approval of new antibiotics has dropped from 16 to only two per year during the last 25 years.
Only 2 new class’ antibiotics have been introduced in the 40 years. We do not have the drugs to fight antibiotic resistant bacteria.
There is untapped diversity in the scale of 36 million compounds contained in the laboratories of academic and small biotech companies worldwide, with thousands of chemists discovering and synthesising more every day.
The vast majority of these compounds have been prepared for other projects and will unfortunately remain on laboratory shelves never to be assessed for antimicrobial potential.
The Community for Open Antimicrobial Drug Discovery is a not-for-profit initiative led by academics for academics.
Our goal is to screen compounds for antimicrobial activity from academic research groups from anywhere in the world for free.
We aim to help researchers around the world to find new, diverse compounds to combat the superbug crisis. And you can help.
Help us find the next antibiotic and donate today www.uq.edu.au/...
CO-ADD website for more information: www.co-add.org