The report on the summit organised by the Wellcome Trust in April 2016 to discuss evidence surrounding various policy recommendations for controlling antimicrobial resistance has been published. Policy makers and researchers from 27 countries participated. Three areas for immediate policy action were identified and highlighted:

• Antibiotic use in agriculture has to be reduced, but without compromising the ability to meet global demand for food.
• Better local understanding of antibiotic use and resistance levels in human and animal medicine and agriculture is urgently needed.
• Public health systems need to optimise antibiotic use (which includes improving infection prevention).

I am particularly taken by one of the figures that highlight the competing demands and politics caused by the need to limit as well as the need to use antibiotics. It well sums up the problem that we face today.

Screen capture from the Wellcome Trust report on “Evidence for Action on Antimicrobial Resistance”.

This report adds hardly anything that is new, but certainly contributes significantly to the mounting worldwide pressure to “do something” about the problem of antimicrobial resistance.