The Fleming Initiative is calling for the public to help highlight AMR in an innovative new billboard campaign at London's iconic Picadilly Lights.
Almost a year ago, the United Nations met in New York pledging to step up action against one of the most urgent health challenges facing the world today: antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
AMR is responsible for approximately 1.3 million deaths globally each year, and occurs when microbes develop resistance to the drugs we use to treat and prevent infections. One in five deaths attributable to AMR occur in children under five years old and AMR mortality among adults aged 70+ is rapidly accelerating.
However, the AMR crisis is not only relevant to these most vulnerable of groups; antimicrobials (like antibiotics and antifungal medicines) enable us to overcome infections that may otherwise kill us and underpin all of modern medicine, from safe birth, to routine surgery, to successful cancer treatment as well as protecting our animals and crops from disease.
But through overuse and improper use, they are becoming less effective. Unless we act now, we will quickly reach the point where these vital medicines no longer work.
The Fleming Initiative has been among the first to recognise that if we are to slow the progress of AMR, we need global public awareness of its causes and solutions, so we can collectively change our behaviour.
As part of its imaginative new approach to public engagement, the Fleming Initiative delivered a billboard campaign in New York's Times Square, called "every 11 seconds". Building on the anniversary of that event, the team is now looking to deliver a new billboard campaign at London's Piccadilly Circus – with the help of the public.
The new campaign, called "thank you antibiotics", aims to create a moment of global public engagement and will be shared at the iconic Piccadilly Lights, one of the world's most iconic advertising spaces.
The Fleming Initiative is inviting people from around the world to submit a photograph and story of how antibiotics have helped them and their families.
Professor Alison Holmes, Director of the Fleming Initiative, said: "Every one of us has an individual connection to antibiotics and a personal debt of gratitude for their importance in treating infections or preventing them when needed. We have depended on them being effective in our own lives, and in the life history of our families. Whether they helped beat a serious infection, or enabled the safe delivery of a baby, or the safe treatment of cancer therapy, we have all depended on them.
"Today, we are calling on members of the public to help us shine a light on the urgent need to ensure that antibiotics remain effective, by celebrating their own experiences and gratitude. By sharing stories, we can raise awareness of this urgent health crisis and be a part of the global movement to tackle AMR."
Dame Sally Davies, the UK Special Envoy on AMR said: "I am delighted to support this innovative campaign. By offering the public a starring role at its very heart, I hope it will capture the public imagination and encourage people to learn about AMR and how individual behaviours and choices can be part of the solution."
Submission are welcomed across one of four categories:
- Safe childbirth
- Safe surgery
- Cancer treatment
- Treatment of infection
And can be made via the Initiative's website here https://www.fleminginitiative.org/thank-you-antibiotics until the end of September.
The campaign aims to build a shared sense of motivation and urgency around the AMR crisis, while perhaps helping people learn about AMR for the first time and how individual behaviours and choices can be part of the solution.
Prof the Lord Ara Darzi, Executive Chair of the Fleming Initiative concluded: "Antimicrobial resistance is one of the greatest public health threats facing the global population, but it is one we can overcome together.
"As a cancer surgeon, I have seen first-hand how vital antibiotics are: cancer patients face ten times the risk of sepsis, and without antibiotics, chemotherapy and surgery simply cannot be delivered safely. We cannot take them for granted.
"That is why the Fleming Initiative is bringing together science, policy and - most importantly - the public to find innovative solutions to this crisis. By sharing our experiences, this campaign will help spark a global movement to keep antibiotics working and safeguard the future of healthcare for generations to come."
The Fleming Initiative was launched in 2023, through a partnership between and Imperial College London and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.
