Strengthening the Frontline Against AMR: Building Progress Through Commitment |
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has emerged as one of the most pressing developmental challenges of our time — one that demands coordinated action across human, animal, and environmental sectors to protect the progress we have made and secure a healthier future. AMR occurs when microbes evolve to withstand the medicines meant to destroy them. Although resistance is a natural process, the speed at which it is advancing today is driven by human practices: Inappropriate antimicrobial use, inadequate infection prevention, and widespread environmental contamination. The impact is alarming — infections once easily treatable are becoming harder, and sometimes impossible, to cure, leading to longer hospital stays, higher medical costs, and preventable deaths.
World Antimicrobial Awareness Week (WAAW) commemorated from 18-24 November every year, serves as a timely reminder that combating AMR is essential to sustaining global health and development gains. The theme for WAAW’25 is Act Now: Protect Our Present, Secure Our Future. It calls for urgent, collective action from governments, health professionals, farmers, environmentalists, and citizens to preserve the effectiveness of life-saving medicines and safeguard the progress humanity has made over decades.
AMR: A Development Challenge Beyond Health
The consequences of AMR extend well beyond the health sector. Resistant infections not only increase the burden on health care systems but also slow economic........