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The research, led by Dr Marco J Haenssgen at the CABDyN Complexity Centre and the Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health, involved a new finger-prick blood test (C-reactive protein) to help nurses and doctors decide whether their patients need antibiotic treatment.
The superbug crisis has arisen because microbes are becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics and other antimicrobials. The severity of the problem has been described in a recent World Bank report entitled 'Drug-Resistant Infections: A Threat to Our Economic Future', which warns that the current trends of antimicrobial use can entail 'a reversal of the public-health gains of the past century, and the economic growth, development, and poverty reduction these gains enabled.'