2024-04-05 14:03:27
05 avril 2024
The Global Leadership Group on Antimicrobial Resistance – Antibiotics in particular – calls on UN Member States to respond urgently to this growing threat. Its latest study suggests a staggering human and economic cost if strong measures are not quickly taken once morest antimicrobial resistance.
“Unchecked, antimicrobial resistance will reduce life expectancy and lead to unprecedented healthcare costs and economic losses. » This is the alarming observation made on Thursday April 4 in a press release by the Global Steering Group on Antimicrobial Resistance, relayed by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Antimicrobials – antibiotics, antifungals, antivirals, antiparasitics – are drugs used to prevent and treat infections in living beings – humans, animals and plants. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) occurs when antimicrobials are used excessively or misused. Bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites then adapt to the drug and evolve to resist it later. They adapt. “As a result, medications lose their effectiveness and infections persist in the body, increasing the risk of transmission to other people,” summarizes the WHO.
Children under 5 years of age particularly affected
AMR is already one of the leading causes of death worldwide, directly responsible for 1.27 million deaths per year, according to the group of experts. One in five deaths concern children under the age of five, mainly in low- and middle-income countries.
The economic study carried out by these experts shows that an economic catastrophe will be added to the humanitarian catastrophe. They say that globally, 1.8 years of life expectancy will be lost by 2023. The study estimates additional health costs of $412 billion (€380 billion) per year and 443 billion dollars (409 billion euros) per year the loss of labor productivity. Besides this bleak picture, she proposes solutions that would cost an average of $46 million per year, but would return $13 for every dollar spent by 2050.
Research, surveillance, prevention, coordination
The group of experts therefore calls for a strong mobilization of UN member countries. “This data portends a devastating future if we do not take bolder action now,” said RAM Panel Chair, Mia Amor Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados. “That’s why the Global Leadership Group is making recommendations and proposing targets to drive a robust global response to AMR and save millions of lives. »
Guidelines are outlined, including better funding research and development of new drugs, coordinating a global response and strengthening AMR surveillance. And, “because prevention is the cornerstone of the response to AMR, the GLG recommends that countries implement strategies to prevent infections in human and animal health and in food, plant and environmental ecosystems to reduce the need for antimicrobials”, note les experts.
Demanding objectives
They set several objectives to be achieved by 2030:
Reduce the number of human deaths due to AMR by 10%; consume 80% of all antibiotics from the ACCESS group. These drugs, such as amoxicillin, “are effective in a wide range of common infections and have a relatively low risk of generating resistance,” explains WHO; reduce the quantity of antimicrobials used in the food industry by at least 30 to 50%; put an end to the use of antimicrobials of primary importance for humans in animals when the aim is not to treat and in plants when the aim is not phytosanitary (example: the use of antibiotics for growth).
Source: WHO, Global Steering Group on Antimicrobial Resistance
Written by Dorothée Duchemin – Edited by: Vincent Roche
Antimicrobial resistance, antibiotics, antibiotic resistance
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