Antimicrobial resistance happens when bacteria, viruses, parasites, and fungi develop resistance against medicines that were previously able to cure them.
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Making history. The high-level meeting on antimicrobial resistance September 21 was just the fourth time the U.N. General Assembly had discussed a health issue – the others were HIV, noncommunicable diseases, and Ebola. The first ever convened on the subject and only the fourth devoted to a health issue in the history of the organization. Here are five things to know about the U.N.’s approach to combating antibiotic resistance. Within the broader context of AMR, resistance to antibiotics is considered the greatest and most urgent global risk requiring worldwide and national attention.
We are heading into a post-antibiotic era, where common infections could once again be deadly.
Statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that more than 2 million residents in the United States get sick due to antibiotic resistance infections.
“I am very excited by these latest commitments from major pharmaceutical companies to do their bit in the world’s response to drug-resistant infections”, said Jim O’Neill, chair of the UK Antimicrobial Resistance Commission and author of an influential review of the problem commissioned by the UK government. This is a problem we can’t afford to ignore.
Although most of the research on AMR comes from wealthier countries, resistance to HIV and TB drugs, and now malaria, is having the biggest impact in poorer countries where these diseases are most prevalent. No single country will be able help without coordination from global organisations.
But in the last few years, studies have dramatically increased awareness about antibiotic resistance. “We are seeing this in places in India and Africa”, he said.
Drug-resistant bacteria, already estimated to cause 700,000 deaths every year, are expected to kill 10 million people a year by 2050, according to the O’Neill report.
The countries also pledged to tighten the regulation of antimicrobial medicines, increase communication on how best to use them and find new alternatives to such medicines, including the use of better diagnostics to match the right treatment with the right infection, and the use of vaccines to prevent infections.
Over the past half century, only two new classes of antibiotics reached the market. “Agriculture must shoulder its share of responsibility, both by using antimicrobials more responsibly and by cutting down on the need to use them, through good farm hygiene”, said Dr Jose Graziano da Silva, Director-General of FAO.
Khor added that a number of preconditions would be needed to make the public funding model a success. Food companies are not especially transparent about what drugs are being used on different species and how they are being used, and the government mandates little be made public.
Continue to identify new and better ways to care for animals to enhance animal welfare and reduce the need for antibiotics, including fostering an environment that stimulates innovation.
Odland noted that Western Europeans focused on the goal of “reducing” antibiotic use in livestock.
“There is a lack of recognition that many health systems in the [Global] South need support”. “Hurry up”, she said.
At a presentation on AMR at the Ford Foundation in NY this week, South African Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi criticised the high cost of new drugs to treat multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis. This U.N. meeting elevated the discussion to a historic level and led to the approval of a declaration, but did not result in legally binding actions and failed to include language to eliminate excessive antibiotic use in animal agriculture.
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“We grew up in the golden age of antibiotics”.
