- Largest ever investment in global AMR surveillance by any
country and sees the launch of the second phase of the Fleming
Fund’s fight against AMR
- Announcement comes as the Secretary of State travels to India
for his first G20 Health Ministers’ meeting
State-of-the-art laboratories, cutting-edge disease surveillance
systems, and a bigger global workforce to tackle deadly
antimicrobial resistance (AMR) will be backed by up to £210
million of funding, the government has announced today.
[Wednesday 16 August].
The funding – from the government’s UK aid budget – will support
the Fleming Fund’s activities to tackle AMR in countries across
Asia and Africa over the next three years, helping to reduce the
threat it poses to the UK and globally.
It will bolster the surveillance capacity in up to 25 countries
where the threat and burden of AMR is highest – including
Indonesia, Ghana, Kenya, and Papua New Guinea - with more than
250 laboratories set to be upgraded and provided with
state-of-the-art equipment. This investment includes new genome
sequencing technology which will help track bacterial
transmission between humans, animals and the environment.
The investment will also strengthen the international health
workforce by supporting 20,000 training sessions for laboratory
staff, pharmacists and hospital staff, and over 200 Fleming Fund
scholarships to boost expertise in microbiology, AMR policy and
One Health – which recognises the connection between humans,
animals and the environment.
Secretary of State for Health and Social Care said:
Antimicrobial resistance is a silent killer which poses a
significant threat to people’s health around the world and in the
UK, and will be an important topic here at the G20 in India.
It’s vital it is stopped in its tracks and this record funding
will allow countries most at risk to tackle it and prevent it
from taking more lives across the world, ultimately making us
safer at home.
It also builds on work the government is doing to incentivise
drug companies to develop new antibiotics – a model which some
G20 countries are looking to implement.
Around 1.27 million people around the world die each year due to
AMR – where bacteria have evolved so much that antibiotics and
other current treatments are no longer effective against
infections – with one in five of those deaths in children under
five. In 2019, AMR was found to have caused between 7,000 and
35,000 deaths in the UK alone.
UK Special Envoy on AMR said:
I am proud and delighted that the UK’s Fleming Fund will continue
to create real impact to tackle AMR and build pandemic
preparedness on the ground across the world, using data to drive
action and catalyse investment.
This world-leading investment in AMR laboratories, workforce and
systems is a vital contribution to realise our vision of a world
free of drug-resistant infection.
The investment will deliver the second phase of the UK-India
Fleming Fund partnership alongside India’s Ministry of Health and
Family Welfare. Worth up to £3 million, it will accelerate
collaboration on AMR surveillance across One Health sectors and
help both countries to deliver on their 2030 roadmap.
As part of his visit to India, the Secretary of State will go to
India’s National Centre for Disease Control, where India’s
government and the Fleming Fund are joining forces to combat
antimicrobial resistance.
He will also attend a showcase of innovative health technology
with representatives from UK and Indian artificial intelligence
and digital health firms in a bid to unleash further the tech
partnership which is already transforming healthcare in both
countries.
The G20 Health Ministers’ meeting takes place in Gandhinagar,
India from Friday 18 August – Saturday 19 August.
