Would global ministerial meet galvanise action to prevent AMR in humans, animals, plants and environment?
SHOBHA SHUKLA - CNS
High level ministerial delegations from over 100 countries (mostly from the Global South) are expected to converge in Nigeria this June to attend the 5th High Level Ministerial Meeting on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) that will be held on the African soil for the first time in history, with the Nigerian government hosting it.
The past meetings were held in Netherlands (twice) followed by Oman and Saudi Arabia - all high-income countries. AMR is a critical crisis impacting health and food security in low- and middle-income countries. It is for the first time that this upcoming meet is being held in a low- and middle-income country (Nigeria) - which gives hope for spurring more relevant actions to prevent AMR.
AMR or drug resistance is among the top 10 global health threats and threatens our livestock, food systems, economies and our environment. It is a problem driven by misuse and overuse of antimicrobial medicines - including antibiotics, antivirals, antiparasitics and antifungals - and results in critical medicines losing their effectiveness to treat infections. As a result of drug resistance, medicines become ineffective, and infections become increasingly difficult or impossible to treat.
Misuse and overuse of medicines is not only rampant in human health, but also in animal health and livestock, food and agriculture, and is also polluting our environment.
That is why global lead agencies on human health (World Health Organization - WHO), environment (United Nations Environment Programme - UNEP), food (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations - FAO) and animal health (World Organisation for Animal Health - WOAH) united to form Quadripartite Joint Secretariat on AMR to address the challenge with One Health approach. All Quadripartite agencies are supporting this upcoming global ministerial meeting on AMR.
Translate political commitments into country-level delivery
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