Annual review 2022
Fighting drug-resistant microbes
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Overuse of antimicrobial drugs is endangering human health and agriculture by producing resistant microbes. Combatting this threat demands global cooperation and surveillance data. As the Fleming Fund’s management agent, we are playing a key role.
Project
Fleming Fund
Client
UK Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC)
Location
22 priority countries across Africa and Asia
Expertise
Programme and fund management; human, animal, and environmental health; international development; capacity building; programme sustainability.
Project value
£265M
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A broad strategy
The success of the programme depends on the quality and quantity of data that flows from each country’s laboratories into national and global surveillance systems. We work with governments to identify and fill gaps in national AMR capacity, ensuring that funding is distributed where it can achieve most value and in countries with the highest vulnerabilities.
The Fleming Fund’s grants have enabled governments with overstretched health budgets to strengthen laboratory and diagnostic capacity at 240 sites and improve biosafety and biosecurity to ensure bacterial samples are collected, handled, processed, and stored safely.
Taking a multidisciplinary One Health approach to combating AMR is an integral part of the programme. Some drug-resistant viruses, bacteria, fungi, and parasites move freely between humans, animals, and the environment; therefore, they cannot be effectively controlled without cross-sectoral collaboration.
Advanced equipment
Advanced lab equipment, including bacterial culture and antimicrobial susceptibility testing instruments and mass spectrometers, has been delivered to human and animal health laboratories to improve AMR testing accuracy and increase AMR testing capacity. Funding has also been used to upgrade information management and quality assurance systems and provide training to ensure data is collected, monitored, interpreted and shared effectively.
The Fleming Fund also has a fellowship programme, which has created a global network of multidisciplinary AMR experts and advocates. We have supported 184 fellows across 22 countries, providing peer-to-peer mentoring and training. These experts are forging strong links across the human, animal, and environmental health sectors, sharing knowledge, furthering collaboration, and pushing for greater alignment in policy and strategy.
240
laboratory sites received investment
184
fellows supported across 22 countries
Equipping laboratories and creating a global network of experts
