Antimicrobial Resistance: The Slow-Motion Pandemic in Respiratory Medicine

Abstract

Long before SARS-CoV-2, another pandemic had begun, one measured not in weeks but in decades. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) now causes more deaths globally than HIV, malaria, or breast cancer’. Yet within respiratory medicine, the crisis remains under-recognised. Pneumonia, bronchiectasis, tuberculosis, and pleural infections sit at the epicentre of resistance, but stewardship efforts have lagged. This stagnation is striking when compared with the transformative breakthroughs in other respiratory diseases: targeted biologics in asthma, CFTR modulators in cystic fibrosis, and immunotherapy in lung cancer, each of which has revolutionised outcomes within a generation.