Recommendations include creating strong governance, planning, regulatory and legal frameworks at the national level, and increasing global efforts to improve integrated drinking water management. The report was launched at the 6th Meeting of the Global Leaders Group on AMR, chaired by Prime Minister Mottley.
An additional example of inequality
Tackling AMR requires a multisectoral response that recognizes that the health of individuals, animals, plants and the environment are closely linked and interdependent . The study targets the environmental dimensions of AMR, which occurs when bacterias, viruses, fungi, and parasites change over time and no longer respond to medicines. In 2019, an estimated 1 . 27 million deaths globally were directly attributed to drug-resistant infections. Overall, nearly 5 million deaths were associated with bacterial AMR. “Pollution of air, soil, and waterways undermines the human right to the clean and healthy environment . The same drivers that result in environment degradation are deteriorating the antimicrobial resistance problem. The impacts of anti-microbial resistance could destroy our health and food systems, ” she warned.
Food and health at risk
The pharmaceutical, agricultural and healthcare areas are key drivers associated with AMR development and spread in the environment, together with contaminants from poor sanitation, sewage and municipal waste techniques. It contains measures to deal with both the decline of the environment and the rise of AMR, with focus on addressing key pollution resources from bad sanitation, sewage, and community and municipal wastes. Inger Andersen, the UNEP Executive Director, described that the triple planetary crisis – climate change, air pollution and biodiversity loss – have contributed to this. AMR furthermore affects the economy and it is expected to cause a drop in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of at least . 4 trillion annually by the end from the decade, pushing some 24 million people into extreme poverty.
One Health response
AMR is among the top 10 worldwide threats to health, based on the World Health Organization ( WHO ). This is in line with the One Health platform developed by UNEP, WHO the UN As well as Agriculture Organization ( FAO ), as well as the World Organisation for Pet Health (WOAH). “The environment crisis of our time can also be one of human rights plus geopolitics – the antimicrobial resistance report published simply by UNEP today is yet another example of inequity, in that the AMR crisis is disproportionately affecting countries within the Global South , ” said Prime Minister Mia Mottley of Barbados, who seem to chairs a UN-backed initiative of world leaders and experts examining the issue. Other actions suggested are establishing global standards for what constitutes a good microbiological indicator of AMR from environmental samples, and exploring options in order to redirect investments, including to ensure sustainable funding. It calls for strengthening action to reduce the emergence, transmission and spread of “superbugs” – strains associated with bacteria that have become resistant to every known biotic – and other instances of AMR, which are already taking a serious toll on human, animal, and plant health. It is expected that will some 10 million extra direct deaths annually simply by 2050 will occur, that is equal to the number of deaths triggered globally by cancer in 2020.
