Dear HIFA colleagues,
We learn from the WHA that 'Member states approved the Global Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance (GAP-AMR) for 2026–2036, renewing commitments to strengthen the global response to AMR'
Below are extracts from the Plan and a comment from me. The full text is available here: https://apps.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/WHA79/A79_5Add2-en.pdf
WHO’s Global Antimicrobial Resistance and Use Surveillance System (GLASS) indicates that one in six common bacterial infections in 2023 were resistant to antibiotic treatment. Studies estimate that 4.71 million deaths were associated with bacterial AMR in 2021. Without urgent action, AMR could cause up to 39 million deaths by 2050, disproportionately affecting low- and middle-income countries...
Key drivers of AMR include inappropriate antimicrobial use in all sectors, weak infection prevention and control, and low vaccination coverage... Weak antimicrobial stewardship, substandard and falsified medicines and insufficient regulatory capacity, especially in low- and middle-income countries, exacerbate the problem...
Without robust action, global treatment costs and productivity losses could reach US$ 412 billion and US$ 443 billion, respectively, by 2035.
All stakeholders should be empowered with the knowledge necessary to foster behavioural change for AMR prevention and control across sectors
Education and training at all levels should integrate competency-based, context-sensitive AMR content into school and university curricula and professional training.
Equitable access should be complemented by effective antimicrobial stewardship promoting appropriate use and safe disposal across all sectors and levels of care, including primary care and informal settings. In human health, antimicrobial stewardship policies and up-to-date, evidence-based national treatment guidelines, including on clinical management, should be guided by local data and antimicrobial stewardship principles and by the AWaRe classification and antibiotic book, while national essential medicine lists should align with the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines.
COMMENT (NPW): The plan omits what is arguably the most important challenge: to ensure that every prescriber and every user has access to reliable information on how to use antimicrobial drugs responsibly.
The availability of relevant, reliable information on medicines is a prerequisite for the delivery of effective care. Misuse of medicines, and especially antibiotics, is increasingly recognised as a threat to global health.
It is unacceptable that prescribers and users of medicines continue to be denied easy access to reliable, essential information on medicines. Prescribers and users of medicines in low- and middle-income countries need free, independent, reliable, understandable information about medicines, in the language of their choice. https://www.hifa.org/projects/prescribers-and-users-medicines
A systematic review by HIFA and partners revealed a pervasive 'lack of up-to-date and relevant medicine information in low and lower middleincome settings... Antimicrobial resistance is a rising global health threat caused by the overuse of antibiotics'.
https://www.hifa.org/projects/prescribers-and-users-medicines
https://www.hifa.org/sites/default/files/publications_pdf/BMJGlobalHealt...
It is relatively easy to find information on individual medicines, but guidance on rational prescribing is less available. The British National Formulary and its derivatives are the best guidance that we have, but unfortunately they are commercially restricted, behind a paywall and therefore not accessible to the 8 billion people who would benefit from it.
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org