Put people first mantra to drive WHO task force to save the medicines that protect us
SHOBHA SHUKLA - CNS
Save the medicines that protect us, prevent Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR)
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The United Nations apex health agency the World Health Organization (WHO) had announced the establishment of its first-ever civil society Task Force on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) in October 2025. This marks a major shift in addressing AMR, which is not only among the top 10 global health threats but also threatening our food safety and systems and polluting our environment. After all, it is we the people that must be central to health and development responses.
AMR is making infections - that were earlier easier to treat - difficult (or even impossible) to treat because disease-causing pathogens (like bacteria, virus, fungi or parasites) become drug-resistant as a result of which medicines no longer work on them. We cannot afford to undo the century of advancements in modern science and lose the medicines that protect us when we get sick.
AMR warrants an inter-sectoral response because misuse and overuse of medicines is not only rampant in human health sector but also in other sectors like animal health and livestock, food and agriculture, and even polluting our environment.
UNAIDS former head Michel Sidibe had said to CNS in 2009 that when a bacteria (TB) and virus (HIV) can work together, why cannot we? Akin to the mantra, AMR too calls for a united response to prevent it.
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