March 28, 2024
One Health Trust’s Dr. Ramanan Laxminarayan was featured in a “Voices” article that highlights the importance of multisectoral approaches to issues in global health. In anticipation of the United Nations General Assembly’s High-Level Meeting on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) this September, he emphasizes three steps that, if supported by high-level policy and investment decisions, would reduce the global burden of AMR:
- Ensuring equitable access to existing antibiotics: While the field of antibiotic research looks ahead to novel formulations and compounds, inequitable access to currently available antibiotics limits treatment options and threatens health outcomes worldwide. Lack of access to basic, first-line antibiotics is deadlier than AMR itself – providing access to these effective drugs can reduce the burden of infections and save lives.
- Changing the perception of AMR: Current language around AMR confers a negative or unsolvable connotation to the issue. However, vaccines, improved water, sanitation, and hygiene, and infection prevention and control measures have been shown to reduce rates of AMR and can be implemented with the support of policymakers and funders.
- Maximizing financial investment in improved tools: Diagnostics, vaccines, and drugs all require investment with a particular emphasis on access. Developments in these tools are ineffective if they cannot be accessed universally.
Read the full article published in Med here.
