Rising antimicrobial resistance: an evolving epidemic in a pandemic

While the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic is sweeping through India, causing unprecedented human tragedy, the prescription of a plethora of unnecessary antibiotics—without regard for the potential for increased antimicrobial resistance—is widespread and unchecked. In The Lancet Microbe, Clark Russell and colleagues1 highlight the overuse of antimicrobials during the first wave of COVID-19 in the UK, despite the rare incidence of bacterial coinfections. This problem occurs to a greater magnitude in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs).