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FACT SHEETThe COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated that we need to build a more resilient health care system that is well positioned to prevent
and respond to infectious disease outbreaks and other public health crises and natural disasters. Achieving this goal will require
addressing the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
The discovery and introduction of antibiotics in the 1940s transformed modern medicine and enabled tremendous progress in
health care and life expectancy. Today, this progress is increasingly threatened by AMR. AMR is a natural process that occurs
when microorganisms such as bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites change in ways that make the microorganisms resistant to the
medication used to cure the infection. This means the more we use medicines to fight these infections, the more resistance we create.