How to Control AMR?

Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) is an urgent problem but sustainable solutions exist

Targets, accountability frameworks, political will, and funding are needed to control AMR Globally.

• AMR kills more people than HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis combined, but funding for innovation to address AMR is more than 15 times lower;
• innovation should focus on accessible solutions in low- and middle-income countries, where AMR burden is highest.

750,000 AMR deaths could be prevented each year in low- and middle-income countries with existing interventions:

• 337,000 aligning infection prevention and control standards in healthcare settings in low- and middle-income countries with those of high-income countries;
• 247,800 universal access to water, sanitation, and hygiene services;
• 181,500 universal coverage of high-priority pediatric vaccines.

The 2024 Lancet Series on AMR proposes achievable global targets to ensure sustainable access to effective antibiotics.

By 2030, relative to 2019, aim for

• 10 percent reduction in AMR mortality;
• 20 percent reduction in inappropriate human antibiotic use;
• 30 percent reduction in inappropriate animal antibiotic use.

Reducing global AMR-associated deaths by 10% by 2030 is achievable.

We must:

• Fund and facilitate antibiotic, vaccine, and diagnostic research & development;
• guarantee antibiotic access for everyone when they need it;
• ensure better diagnostic access and use;
• promote the careful use of antibiotics;
• leverage vaccines for AMR control;
• improve water, sanitation, and hygiene infrastructure and access.

Reference: The Lancet Series on Antimicrobial Resistance: The need for sustainable access to effective antibiotics