Lessons can be learned from the Covid-19 pandemic to help tackle the threat of resistance to the drugs used to treat infections, officials have said as they launched a new plan to combat the threat of an “antibiotic emergency”.

Thousands of people in the UK die from drug-resistant infections each year.

Concerns have been raised that if antimicrobial resistance (AMR) remains unchecked then common infections and injuries will become harder, or impossible, to treat.

Government officials said that the latest plan to tackle the threat of AMR will include lessons learned from the coronavirus pandemic, including infection prevention and control measures to reduce infections and the development of diagnostics and vaccines.

Officials also hope to raise awareness of AMR among both healthcare workers and the public, as part of plans to “control” resistance by 2040.

As part of the latest 5-year National Action Plan to tackle AMR, covering 2024 to 2029, the government will also pledge that the UK will reduce the use of antimicrobial drugs – such as antibiotics, antifungals and antivirals – in humans and animals.

Health minister Maria Caulfield said: “Almost 8,000 people in the UK die from drug-resistant infections every year.

“If this continues to spread, common infections and injuries that were once easily treatable become harder, and in some cases impossible, to treat.

“Our five-year action plan outlines our commitment to leading the way in tackling AMR, including through expanding our world-first subscription model to accelerate research into new treatments.”

UK special envoy on AMR Professor Dame Sally Davies said: “We are facing an antibiotic emergency already.

“It is incomprehensible for any of us to imagine a world without effective antibiotics.”

Professor Susan Hopkins, chief medical adviser at the UK Health Security Agency, said it will take collective action to tackle the threat of AMR, adding: “Antimicrobial resistance is a threat to all of us – simple lifesaving interventions in the form of antimicrobials are in danger of becoming ineffective.”

The World Health Organization has described AMR as “one of the top global public health and development threats”, saying bacterial AMR was directly responsible for 1.27 million global deaths in 2019 and contributed to 4.95 million deaths.