When Scottish doctor Alexander Fleming accidentally discovered the first antibiotic in 1928, he changed the course of history, extending global life expectancy by decades and saving millions of lives on the battlefield and beyond.

But humanity’s dependence on his discovery has fuelled a modern crisis: antimicrobial resistance, or AMR.

Decades of overuse and misuse of antibiotics have allowed “superbugs” – bacteria that have mutated to survive treatments – to evolve.

According to a 2014 British study, AMR infections may kill 10 million people annually by 2050, surpassing cancer as a leading cause of death if no intervention is taken.

To address this problem, scientists at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) have developed a skincare product for eczema that aims to control bacterial infections without killing the microbes.

Patients are especially vulnerable to AMR infections because of their heavy reliance on antibiotics to manage their skin condition, according to Richard Kao Yi-tsun, an associate professor of microbiology at HKU.