Coronavirus Disease 2019 and Antimicrobial Resistance: Parallel and Interacting Health Emergencies

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) are parallel and interacting health emergencies that provide the opportunity for mutual learning. As their measures and consequences are comparable, the COVID-19 pandemic helps to illustrate the potential long-term impact of AMR, which is less acute but not less crucial. They may also impact each other as there is a push to use existing antimicrobials to treat critically ill COVID-19 patients in the absence of specific treatments. Attempts to manage the spread of COVID-19 may also lead to a slowdown in AMR. Understanding how COVID-19 affects AMR trends and what we can expect if these trends remain the same or worsen will help us to plan the next steps for tackling AMR. Researchers should start collecting data to measure the impact of current COVID-19 policies and programs on AMR.

Automated summary

The COVID-19 pandemic and antimicrobial resistance are parallel health emergencies that provide the opportunity for mutual learning, with potential long-term impacts of AMR illustrated by the measures and consequences of COVID-19. There is a push to use existing antimicrobials for COVID-19 treatment, which may also impact the spread of AMR, highlighting the need for data collection to understand the influence of COVID-19 on AMR trends.