WORLD ANTIMICROBIAL AWARENESS WEEK 2020: UNITED TO PRESERVE ANTIMICROBIALS
What is the Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR)?
When you take an antimicrobial drug, it goes on to kill microbes in your body, giving you relief. But with time, some of these microbes adopt means of shielding themselves from the effects of these antimicrobial drugs. The greater your exposure to these drugs; the faster these resistant bacteria increase. In any case, you come down with the same infection, you’ll need a stronger antibiotic agent, which are not easy to produce, and become even toxic to your system the stronger they are.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared AMR as one of the top global public health threats facing humanity. Recent predictions forecast that by 2050, there will be up to 10 million deaths each year to antimicrobial resistance if no action is taken soon.¹
How does AMR spread, and what causes AMR?
Antimicrobial resistant-microbes are ubiquitous, they can spread between people and animals, including from food of animal origin, and from person to person.
Poor infection control, inadequate sanitary conditions, and inappropriate food-handling also encourage the spread of antimicrobial resistance.
AMR occurs naturally over time, through genetic mutation of microbes or horizontal gene transfer. However, the misuse and overuse of antimicrobials are accelerating this process. Overuse occurs when antimicrobials are used excessively often without a physician’s supervision.
Why should AMR bother you?
Should microbes continually develop resistance to drugs, it becomes difficult to treat common infectious diseases like Pneumonia, Tuberculosis, Gonorrhoea, and Salmonellosis, etc. resulting in prolonged illnesses and sometimes death.
Consequently, medical procedures such as organ transplantation, cancer chemotherapy, diabetes management, and major surgeries, become a high risk as treatment of common infections easily contracted during the procedures have become hard. With people staying for longer periods in the hospital for common infections, the cost of health care will be more.²
How can we prevent AMR?
Here are a few steps to be taken to hamper antimicrobial resistance:
1. Antimicrobials must be prescribed and used only when necessary and following correct guidelines.
2. Don’t share or use left-over antibiotics.
3. Prevent infections by regularly washing hands, preparing food hygienically, avoiding close contact with sick people, practicing safer sex, and keeping vaccinations up to date.
4. Antibiotics should be given to animals under veterinary supervision.
5. Prepare food hygienically, following the WHO five keys to safer food: keep clean, separate raw and cooked, cook thoroughly, keep food at safe temperatures, use safe water and raw materials, and choose foods that have been produced without the use of antimicrobial for growth promotion or disease prevention in healthy animals.
6. Educate people on the implications of antimicrobials overuse and misuse.
World Antimicrobial Awareness Week (WAAW) 2020
Theme (for the human health sector): “United to preserve antimicrobials”
Date: 18 – 24 November 2020
World Antimicrobial Awareness Week (WAAW) aims to increase awareness of global antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and encourage best practices amongst the general public, health workers, and policymakers to avoid the further emergence and spread of drug-resistant infections.
Following a stakeholder's consultation meeting in May 2020, the scope of WAAW was expanded; changing its focus from "antibiotics" to the more encompassing and inclusive term "antimicrobials" to facilitate a more inclusive global response to antimicrobial resistance.
A global action plan to tackle the growing problem of resistance to antibiotics and other antimicrobial medicines was endorsed at the sixty-eighth World Health Assembly in May 2015. One of the key objectives of the plan is to improve awareness and understanding of antimicrobial resistance through effective communication, education, and training.
References
1. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/antimicrobial-resistance
2. https://www.paho.org/en/topics/antimicrobial-resistance
3. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/drug-resistant-infections-could-kill-10-million-annually-2050-180972079/
Further Reading
https://www.yourgenome.org/facts/what-is-antibiotic-resistance
https://www.sciencedaily.com/terms/antibiotic_resistance.htm#:~:text=Antibiotic%20resistance%20is%20a%20consequence,be%20a%20fully%20resistant%20generation.
https://www.cdc.gov/drugresistance/about/how-resistance-happens.html
https://www.cdc.gov/drugresistance/biggest-threats.html
https://www.cdc.gov/antibiotic-use/healthcare/index.html
https://apua.org/about-resistance
Akinwumi Olive
Member, NIMELSSA Editorial Team 19/20
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