The WHO policy package to combat antimicrobial resistance

Interaction between a cationic bolaamphiphile and DNA: The route towards nanovectors for oligonucleotide antimicrobials

“…However, bacteria naturally develop resistance, and contributory factors include: the limited number of therapeutic targets that antimicrobials act on; the greater need due to the demands of modern medicine and aging populations; their misuse and overuse; most importantly, the failure to find new antimicrobials to restock the pipeline [2]. Hence, antimicrobial resistance now constitutes a serious global threat [3].…”

The threat of untreatable gonorrhoea: implications and consequences for reproductive and sexual morbidity

“…The package calls for a commitment by governments and their partners to a comprehensive, financed national plan with accountability and civil society engagement; strengthened surveillance and laboratory capacity; ensuring of uninterrupted access to essential medicines of assured quality; regulation and promotion of rational use of medicines, including in animal husbandry; ensuring proper patient care; enhanced infection prevention and control; and fostering of research for new antibiotics and means to enhance diseases prevention. 40 The key message states that since the drivers of antimicrobial resistance are interlinked, so must the responses and solutions be linked. The policy package warns against single, isolated interventions, which will not have much impact.…”

Antimicrobial resistance in South East Asia: time to ask the right questions

“…All use of antibiotics contributes to selection of AMR organisms but the overuse and irrational use of antibiotics, without any benefits to human or animal health, remains the principal driver of AMR in the context of developing nations [7,8]. In many countries, the use of antibiotics in the livestock sector far outweighs their use in humans [9].…”

“…Despite the accumulating evidence that should warrant growing concerns, these have not been central to the discourse on AMR until recently, and human health has remained the central context of most AMR containment strategies [11]. It was pointed out as early as 1945, by Alexander Fleming, in his Nobel acceptance speech, that inappropriate use of penicillin could precipitate resistance; however, this did not become a part of the mainstream policy dialogue until the World Health Organization (WHO) released the six-pronged policy package in 2011 [8]. The issue of the use of antibiotics, both in the human health sector and animal production, was highlighted by the 2001 policy position, then the 2011 policy package, as well as the 2015 global action plan on AMR (GAP-AMR), yet the riddle of curbing antibiotic use in animals has proven difficult to unravel [12].…”