With antimicrobial resistance (AMR) deaths set to cause 39 million deaths between 2025 and 2050 – equivalent to three people every minute – a political declaration at yesterday’s high-level UN General Assembly is great in principle but falls short on substance.
As anticipated, global leaders did approve a political declaration on AMR at yesterday’s (26 September) high-level meeting at the UN General Assembly, but the 15-page document falls short on ambition and resources.
“Today’s declaration includes vital commitments that, if translated into action, will help to track AMR, slow it down, expand access to antimicrobial medicines like antibiotics and spur the development of new ones,” said WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The main headlines include a target to reduce deaths due to AMR by 10% by 2030 and $100 million (€90 million) in catalytic funding to help ensure that at least 60% of countries have funded national action plans on AMR by 2030.
But €90 million seems inadequate given the task at hand.
“Antimicrobial resistance knows no borders and is one of the top three health threats faced by the EU,” said Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides ahead of Thursday’s meeting. “Its threat cannot be tackled by one sector, one country or one continent in isolation.”
The European Commission believes that in Europe alone, the current estimated cost of AMR is €11.7 billion per year in health expenditure and lost productivity.
“Considering the magnitude of the challenge of AMR though, and how few of the hardest-hit countries have been able to fund and implement national action plans, the declaration text should have been much more concrete and ambitious,” said MSF’s International President Dr Christos Christou.
However, the urgency of the situation is not reflected in the declaration, where the wording of commitments uses terms like “strive,” “encourage,” “explore,” and “aim” – terms that are more open to interpretation than “will” or “must”.
The declaration does attempt to address the multifaceted nature of tackling AMR, taking a ‘one health’ approach. It brings together the UN bodies dealing with health (WHO), animal health (WHOA), food and agriculture (FAO), and the environment (UNEP).
Considered thinking has gone into how to incentivise and fund the development of effective new drugs, and there are some ambitious targets for infection prevention and control for healthcare facilities, among other initiatives.
What is lacking are, again, the resources needed to deliver.
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