‘The absence of unfair, avoidable or remediable differences among groups of people, whether those groups are defined socially, economically, demographically or demographically, or by other dimensions of inequality (e.g. sex, gender, ethnicity, disability or sexual orientation).’ (WHO, n.d. 1)

The process of transferring genetic information between two unrelated cells. It is the primary mechanism of spreading antibiotic resistance because it allows bacteria to spread antibiotic resistance genes rapidly between different species.