As World AMR Awareness Week approaches, health experts are urging lawmakers to take immediate action to protect the global medicine supply. The week is themed "One Health, One Action, Prevent AMR Now." At a high-level briefing held alongside the European Parliament exhibition, "AMR: The Human Stories Behind a Silent Pandemic," top health officials, European lawmakers, and patients advocated for a fundamental shift in how world leaders address the growing threat of AMR.
Martin Häusling, a Member of the European Parliament (MEP), warned that the systemic misuse of critical medicines in farming is actively undermining human medicine. Häusling emphasized the need to reduce the overall use of antibiotics in both humans and animals. He specifically highlighted the issue of mass treatment in poultry farming, where thousands of animals are kept in one place and given antibiotics even if they show no symptoms.
Häusling also highlighted the risks associated with drug-resistant pathogens generated in industrial agriculture, which can spill directly into surrounding communities. He noted that wastewater from large slaughterhouses near populated areas can transport resistant pathogens straight into local water supplies. The MEP called for an immediate global ban on using antibiotics as livestock growth promoters, a practice still permitted in the United States.
Dr. Jean-Pierre Nyemazi, Acting Director of the AMR Department at WHO Headquarters, reinforced the human and economic cost of political inaction on AMR. He stated that AMR affects people, animals, plants, and food systems, as well as economies and the environment. Dr. Nyemazi emphasized the need for a One Health approach, which takes into account the interconnectedness of human, animal, and environmental health.
Dr. Nyemazi noted that the key drivers of resistance vary across regions. While many high-income nations grapple with over-prescription, low- and middle-income regions face a dual crisis. He pointed out that a lack of primary healthcare access forces families to buy over-the-counter antibiotics without a prescription, and inadequate regulatory enforcement exacerbates the problem.
Rob Purdie, an AMR survivor and member of the WHO Task Force of AMR Survivors, shared his 13-year battle with a fungal infection that developed resistance to multiple treatments. Purdie's story serves as a stark reminder of the devastating consequences of AMR. He emphasized that drug development currently lags decades behind pathogen evolution, taking nearly 30 years to bring a single novel antifungal class to market.
Panelists stressed that tackling AMR requires an all-hands approach, with governments backing policies with funding, research pairing novel drug development with diagnostic tools, and the public treating antimicrobials as finite resources. The WHO is championing an updated Global Action Plan on AMR, which sets clear targets, including a 10% reduction in bacterial AMR deaths by 2030.
Key points
- Experts warn that antimicrobial resistance can destroy families and livelihoods if urgent action is not taken.
- The misuse of antibiotics in farming is a significant contributor to the growing threat of AMR.
- A One Health approach is essential to addressing the interconnectedness of human, animal, and environmental health.
