Day 3 World Antibiotics Awareness Week

                                                       Antimicrobial Resistance

Image: (Compute Scotland, 2010).

According to the WHO (2015), antimicrobial resistance is a great threat to contemporary medicine and public health efforts to curb the threats from infectious diseases.  Effective antimicrobial drugs are very important in both preventive and curative medical practices because it helps to protect people from likely fatal diseases (WHO, 2015). Furthermore, the use of antimicrobial drugs in surgical procedures and chemotherapy also helps reduce the risk of infection (WHO, 2015). As a result of misuse and overuse of antibiotics worldwide, both in medicine and production of food, the risk of deaths as a result of infections from common infectious diseases are high (WHO, 2015).
“Alert to this crisis, the May 2015 World Health Assembly adopted a global action plan on antimicrobial resistance, which outlines five objectives” WHO (2015): `

1.    To improve awareness and understanding of antimicrobial resistance through effective communication, education and training; `
2.    To strengthen the knowledge and evidence base through surveillance and research; `
3.    To reduce the incidence of infection through effective sanitation, hygiene and infection prevention measures; `
4.    To optimize the use of antimicrobial medicines in human and animal health; `
5.    To develop the economic case for sustainable investment that takes account of the needs of all countries and to increase investment in new medicines, diagnostic tools, vaccines and other interventions.

The need for “one health” approach in every public and global health fact-finding and intervention protocols is key to saving the world from avoidable disease outbreak that could result from the negligence of Global health actors.

“Antimicrobial resistance is a crisis that must be managed with the utmost urgency. As the world enters the ambitious new era of sustainable development, we cannot allow hard-won gains for health to be eroded by the failure of our mainstay medicines” Dr. Margaret Chan, Director-General World Health Organization.


Reference:

Who 2015. Global Action Plan On Antimicrobial Resistance [Online] Available from: http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/193736/1/9789241509763_eng.pdf?ua=1[Accessed November 18, 2015].

Compute Scotland (2010)  AMR? Try music & song [Online] Available from: http://www.computescotland.com/amr-try-music-song-8155.php [Accessed November 18, 2015].