Charles Shearn
England’s outgoing chief medical officer has been appointed as the UK’s first special envoy on antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
The Department for Health and Social Care announced on 23 June 2019 that Dame Sally Davies, who is due to leave her role as chief medical officer for England in October 2019, will work to deliver a response to AMR across the health, agriculture, and environment sectors.
The government also announced that £32m committed to fund UK work in tackling AMR would be distributed to ten “leading research centres” that would use the money to look at new ways to inform prescribing and identify patterns of resistance.
This includes £3.5m granted to the University of Liverpool, which will study how genome sequencing can allow more personalised antibiotic prescribing.
Dame Sally said: “AMR is a complex challenge which needs local, national and global action. The UK should be proud of its world-leading work on AMR. We have made tangible progress but it is essential we maintain momentum.”
Seema Kennedy, the UK government’s minister for public health, said: “It is vital that we retain the irreplaceable expertise of Dame Sally Davies — an international expert in AMR — and continue to invest in research.”
