Future Medicine Ltd, Unitec House, 2 Albert Place, London, N3 1QB, UK Departments of Laboratory Medicine & Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan *Author for correspondence: Tel.: +44 (0)20 8371 6091; n.leeson@futuremedicine.com Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a public health problem of increasing magnitude. Although AMR is not a new phenomenon, the speed with which new resistance phenotypes have emerged and the dearth of new agents in the drug development pipeline has elevated the public health significance of this issue. Consequently, we are currently facing a postantibiotic era. In recent years, organizations and governments worldwide have been implementing strategies, working with a range of partners across research, industry and academic sectors, to address this problem [1–4]. AMR is a complex global public health challenge, and no single or simple strategy will suffice to fully contain it. Therefore, to mitigate AMR will be the result of action in the following areas: improving the knowledge and understanding of AMR, conservation of the effectiveness of existing treatments, and developing new antibiotics, diagnostics and novel therapies. While it is not possible to encapsulate every aspect of AMR in a single special focus issue, Future Microbiology hopes there is something of interest to everyone in this important issue. In the first of our two thoughtful editorials, Bootsma and Schouls discuss surveillance and infection control of Gram-negative microorganisms resistant to carbapenems, which have become the antibiotics of last resort for many serious bacterial infections [5], while Alsaeed and Blondeau discuss the current standing of antibiotic resistance in hospitals [6]. Whiley et al. follow this by challenging the prospect of untreatable and difficult-to-treat gonorrhea, and highlight the need for more holistic actions to reduce the global gonorrhea burden [7]. Then, Ghafur provides an interesting opinion article on what it was like to be involved in the Chennai Declaration and how this affected the attitude change to AMR in India, emphasizing the global need for action [8]. The next section of our special focus issue includes original research articles, such as Chen et al. who report that overexpression of a novel protein, RfiA, confers resistance to PC190723, a fluoridated benzamide antibiotic recently developed as an inhibitor of the bacterial cell division protein FtsZ [9]. Their work highlights Natasha Leeson*,1 & Po-Ren Hsueh2 “...we are currently facing a postantibiotic era. In recent years, organizations and governments worldwide have been implementing strategies, working with a range of partners across research, industry and academic sectors, to address this problem.”