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Content ArticleThe US government’s decision to end programmes that treat and prevent communicable diseases will have serious consequences—not just for vulnerable communities that depend on this aid but also for public health in the US and beyond. Cutting funding to global health programmes isn’t just about withdrawing aid. It increases the risk of infectious disease outbreaks that could impact everyone. Without prevention and treatment efforts, diseases are more likely to spread unchecked, mutate and become harder to control. This creates a higher risk of future global health crises that could threaten lives worldwide. Investing in global health isn’t just humanitarian. It’s essential for protecting public health everywhere.
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News ArticlePeople in the most deprived areas of England are almost twice as likely to be admitted to hospital as a result of infectious diseases than their least deprived counterparts, according to a major study. The report, by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), analysed NHS and government data to look at the state of health inequalities in England due to infectious diseases and environmental health hazards. The analysis found a stark regional divide across England: those living in the north-west of the country were 30% more likely to be admitted to hospital for an infectious disease, with 3,600 admissions for every 100,000 people between September 2023 and August 2024, compared with the average for England, which stood at 2,800 for every 100,000. The study found that inequality was highest in the case of respiratory infections, with an estimated additional 260,000 admissions due to inequalities associated with deprivation. People living in the 20% most deprived areas of England were twice as likely to be admitted to hospital for respiratory diseases, seven times as likely for tuberculosis and six times for measles, than their counterparts from the least deprived areas. Prof David Taylor-Robinson, an academic co-director at Health Equity North and professor of public health and policy at the University of Liverpool, said: “This report echoes past research showing that deprived communities, typically in the North of England, bear the brunt of health inequalities. “It is particularly troubling to see the high number of hospital admissions due to infectious diseases, especially as some of these are preventable diseases.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 2 May 2025
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Content Article
WHO: Vaccines explained (April 2025)
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Infectious diseases
"Vaccines Explained" is a series of illustrated articles from the World Health Organization that describe how vaccines work, how they’re developed and distributed and how their safety is carefully monitored. Check the links below to learn more. How do vaccines work? What's in a vaccine? How are vaccines developed and produced? Ensuring vaccine safety Vaccine efficacy, effectiveness and protection How to talk about vaccines -
News ArticleState and local health officials are seeing skyrocketing cases of whooping cough, and experts are sounding the alarm it could join the outbreak of measles in impacting thousands of Americans. Cases of the highly contagious bacterial infection have reportedly risen by more than 1,500 percent nationwide since 2021. Cases of whooping cough have been high in measles-stricken Texas, with the Laredo Public Health Department reporting more cases there than all of last year. “We’ve seen more cases of whooping cough this year in Laredo than in the past few years,” Dr. Richard Chamberlain, director of Laredo Public Health told The Laredo Morning Times. “This isn’t just happening in Laredo; other places in Texas are also seeing more cases. Right now, we’re keeping a close eye on it. There’s no need to panic, but it’s important to stay informed and take simple steps to help keep everyone safe.” “Many babies who get whooping cough are infected by family members or caregivers who may not even know they are carrying the bacteria,” the Louisiana Office of the Surgeon General noted earlier this month. “About half of babies younger than a year old who get whooping cough will need hospital care.” Read full story Source: The Independent, 15 April 2025
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News Article
151 dead as Nigeria struggles with rapidly spreading outbreak
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Health authorities in Nigeria are struggling to contain a rapidly spreading meningitis outbreak that has so far killed 151 people - with children affected the most. The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) reported this week that cases, initially identified in October, have now spread to 23 of the country's 36 states. Nearly half of the fatalities (74) have occurred this year alone. Local partners described the recent rise in fatalities as "alarming". The NCDC has highlighted a critical factor contributing to the high death toll, namely delayed access to healthcare. NCDC spokesperson Sani Datti explained that many infected individuals either do not seek medical attention or arrive at health facilities too late, already suffering from severe complications. This issue has plagued previous outbreaks in Nigeria. The outbreak comes at a particularly challenging time for Nigeria's healthcare system, which is grappling with the impact of US aid cuts implemented earlier this year. Nigeria relied heavily on such aid over the years to help fight similar outbreaks and support its underfunded healthcare systems. Read full story Source: The Independent, 9 April 2025 -
News Article
Trump makes sweeping HIV research and grant cuts: ‘Setting us back decades’
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The federal government has cancelled dozens of grants to study how to prevent new HIV infections and expand access to care, decimating progress toward eliminating the epidemic in the United States, scientists say. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) terminated at least 145 grants related to researching advancements in HIV care that had been awarded nearly $450m in federal funds. The cuts have been made in phases over the last month. “The loss of this research could very well result in a resurgence of HIV that becomes more generalized in this country,” said Julia Marcus, a professor at Harvard Medical School who recently had two of her grants cancelled. “These drastic cuts are rapidly destroying the infrastructure of scientific research in this country and we are going to lose a generation of scientists.” In 2012, the FDA approved pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), an antiviral drug taken once a day that is highly successful at preventing new HIV infections. While the drug has been a powerful tool to contain the virus, inequities remain in accessing those drugs and sustaining a daily treatment. Despite major progress, there are still 30,000 new infections each year in the US. Many of the terminated HIV-related studies focused on improving access to drugs like PrEP in communities that have higher rates of infections – including trans women and Black men. One of Marcus’s projects was examining whether making PrEP available over the counter would increase the use of the drug in vulnerable communities. “The research has to focus on the populations that are most affected in order to have an impact and be relevant,” said Marcus. Yet, this may be the justification for defunding so many HIV-related studies. A termination letter reviewed by the Guardian dated 20 March cited that “so-called diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) studies are often used to support unlawful discrimination on the basis of race and other protected characteristics, which harms the health of Americans.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 1 April 2025 -
News Article
USA: HPV-linked cancer is becoming common in one group
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Cancer caused by the common human papillomavirus infection, also known as HPV, is increasing in some women in the U.S., researchers said this month. They found that rates of cervical cancer — which is one of the most preventable cancers and largely caused by HPV infection — have been rising among women in their 30s and 40s: many of whom weren’t eligible for HPV vaccines when they were first released in 2006. Approximately 42.5 million Americans are infected with HPV and there are at least 13 million new infections reported each year. The vaccines, which protect individuals from getting several cancers associated with different strains of America’s most common sexually transmitted infection, were originally only recommended for girls and women between the ages of nine and 26. Since then, eligibility has expanded to include individuals between the ages of 27 and 45. It is now recommended for routine vaccination starting at age 11 or 12. Although vaccination has proven to be both safe and effective, vaccine hesitancy and resistance has persisted. In recent years, it has been tied to social media. A December study from USC found that Americans are under-vaccinated for HPV, with 7% of eligible adults completing the full course. Screening is also an issue tied to the American Cancer Society study’s findings, with the percentage of women falling from 47% in 2019 to 41% in 2023. Women between the ages of 21 and 29 are the least likely to be up to date with their screenings, previous research found. Read full story Source: The Independent, 25 March 2025 -
News Article
UK draws up new disease-threat watch list
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The UK has a new watch list of 24 infectious diseases that could pose the greatest future threat to public health. Some are viruses with global pandemic potential - like Covid - while others are illnesses that have no existing treatments or could cause significant harm. Avian, or bird, flu is on the list, as well as mosquito-spread illnesses that may become common with rising temperatures from climate change, according to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA). The aim is to steer scientists and investors into making new tests and vaccines or medicines in preparation. "When Covid arrived, it took too long to adjust our response to a different threat, which was part of the reason we ended up in lockdown," Prof Mark Woolhouse, director of the Tackling Infections to Benefit Africa, University of Edinburgh, said. "Since the pandemic, there have been many initiatives to better understand the diversity of pandemic threats that the UK and the world may face in the coming years. "The UKHSA's pathogen prioritisation exercise is a welcome contribution to this global effort." Read full story Source: BBC News, 25 March 2025 -
Content ArticleThis US cohort study aimed to explore how antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has changed between 2012 and 2022. The findings showed that overall resistant cases per 10,000 hospitalizations declined between 2012 to 2016. However, progress varied across pathogens and was inconsistent before the Covid-19 pandemic. The pandemic was associated with notable increases in hospital-onset cases of AMR.
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News ArticleStruggling to contain a raging measles epidemic in West Texas, public health officials increasingly worry that residents are relying on unproven remedies endorsed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, and postponing doctor visits until the illness has worsened. Hospitals and officials sounded an alarm this week, issuing a notice explaining which measles symptoms warranted immediate medical attention and stressing the importance of timely treatment. “I’m worried we have kids and parents that are taking all of these other medications and then delaying care,” said Katherine Wells, director of public health in Lubbock, Texas, where many of the sickest children in this outbreak have been hospitalized. Some seriously ill children had been given alternative remedies like cod liver oil, she added. “If they’re so, so sick and have low oxygen levels, they should have been in the hospital a day or two earlier,” she said. In his first public statements about the outbreak, Mr. Kennedy faced intense backlash for minimizing the situation, saying it was “not unusual” and falsely claiming that many people hospitalized were there “mainly for quarantine.” In the following weeks, Mr. Kennedy altered his approach, offering a muted recommendation of vaccines for people in West Texas while also promoting unproven treatments like cod liver oil, which has vitamin A, and touting “almost miraculous and instantaneous” recoveries with steroids or antibiotics. Read full story (paywalled) Source: New York Times, 15 March 2025
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Content ArticleInfections acquired in health care settings, including those antimicrobial resistant, cause tremendous suffering to patients, families and health workers and pose a high burden on health systems. Most of these infections are preventable with appropriate infection prevention and control (IPC) programmes and practices and basic water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services. Improving IPC and WASH saves lives and yields high economic gains. At the 77th World Health Assembly, all countries adopted the WHO global action plan and monitoring framework 2024-2030. This document provides the evidence on the expected return in investment in and guidance for implementing and monitoring the WHO global action plan on IPC at the country level.
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News Article
Measles now an 'imminent' global threat due to pandemic, say WHO and CDC
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
There is now an "imminent threat" of measles spreading in every region of the world, the World Health Organisation and the US public health agency has said. In a joint report, the health organisations said there had been a fall in vaccines against measles and less surveillance of the disease during the COVID pandemic. Measles is one of the most contagious human viruses but is almost entirely preventable through vaccination, though it requires 95% vaccine coverage to prevent outbreaks. A record high of nearly 40 million children missed a dose last year because of hurdles created by the pandemic, according to the report by the WHO and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This has left millions of children susceptible to the disease. "We are at a crossroads," Patrick O'Connor, the WHO's measles lead, said. "It is going to be a very challenging 12-24 months trying to mitigate this." Read full story Source: Sky News, 24 November 2022 -
News Article
World faces ‘perfect storm’ for measles outbreak affecting children, WHO warns
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A spike in the number of measles cases around the world has sparked concerns over the potential for serious outbreaks this year. Almost 17,338 measles cases were reported worldwide in January and February 2022, compared to 9,665 during the first two months of last year – which represents a rise of 79%. Unicef and the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned that there is a “perfect storm” for serious outbreaks of the vaccine-preventable illnesses such as measles. As of this month, the agencies report 21 large and disruptive measles outbreaks around the world in the last 12 months. The five countries with the largest measles outbreaks since the past year include Somalia, Yemen, Nigeria, Afghanistan, and Ethiopia. The coronavirus pandemic has seen much of health funding and resources diverted to deal with the spread of the virus since 2020. In 2020, the first year of the pandemic, 23 million children missed out on basic childhood vaccines through routine health services, the highest number since 2009 and 3.7 million more than in 2019. These pandemic-related disruptions – as well as increasing inequalities in access to vaccines – has left many children without protection against contagious diseases while Covid restrictions are eased in most countries, the two organisations said. Read full story Source: The Independent, 28 April 2022 -
News Article
Rubella warning to pregnant women amid MMR jab decline
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Diminishing rates of measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) jabs have prompted a Royal College warning over the risks to pregnant women, as the NHS raises concerns over London “lagging” behind the national uptake. The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health’s immunisations lead, Dr Helen Bradford, said the falling uptake of the MMR vaccine could present a serious risk to pregnant women and their unborn children. The warning comes as London health authorities are planning a major summer drive to improve uptake in the capital, The Independent has learned. Documents seen by The Independent setting out NHS plans for a summer MMR campaign put the focus on social media, including approaching “influencers” to spread messages. The plans also rely on free publicity, with proposals to approach broadcast media. Risks to increasing uptake, according to the document, included anti-vaxx sentiment towards MMR, apathy towards the vaccine, controversy meaning influencers won’t work with the NHS, and a lack of internal data. Read full story Source: The Independent, 27 June 2022 -
News Article
Florida is swamped by disease outbreaks as quackery replaces science
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Shortly before Joseph Ladapo was sworn in as Florida’s surgeon general in 2022, the New Yorker ran a short column welcoming the vaccine-skeptic doctor to his new role, and highlighting his advocacy for the use of leeches in public health. It was satire of course, a teasing of the Harvard-educated physician for his unorthodox medical views, which include a steadfast belief that life-saving Covid shots are the work of the devil, and that opening a window is the preferred treatment for the inhalation of toxic fumes from gas stoves. But now, with an entirely preventable outbreak of measles spreading across Florida, medical experts are questioning if quackery really has become official health policy in the nation’s third most-populous state. As the highly contagious disease raged in a Broward county elementary school, Ladapo, a politically appointed acolyte of Florida’s far-right governor Ron DeSantis, wrote to parents telling them it was perfectly fine for parents to continue to send in their unvaccinated children. “The surgeon general is Ron DeSantis’s lapdog, and says whatever DeSantis wants him to say,” said Dr Robert Speth, a professor of pharmaceutical sciences at south Florida’s Nova Southeastern University with more than four decades of research experience. “His statements are more political than medical and that’s a horrible disservice to the citizens of Florida. He’s somebody whose job is to protect public health, and he’s doing the exact opposite.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: Guardian, 3 March 2024 -
News ArticleThe number of measles infections around the world could surge in the wake of coronavirus as countries are forced to suspend vaccination programmes. The World Health Organization (WHO) has said it fears more than 117 million children could miss out on being vaccinated against measles, which killed 140,000 people in 2018. Officials worry that 37 countries where the deadly virus is a major threat could delay immunisation programmes, with 24 countries already suspending their efforts as attention is focused on containing and preventing the spread of COVID-19. Read full story Source: The Independent, 14 April 2020
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News ArticleLast Wednesday, during President Donald Trump's first Cabinet meeting, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the head of the nation's largest federal health agency, downplayed a measles outbreak that has infected more than 150 people and killed a child in Texas. "We're following the measles epidemic every day," Kennedy said with reporters in the room during the Cabinet meeting. "Incidentally, there have been four measles outbreaks this year in this country. ... So it’s not unusual. We have measles outbreaks every year.” Two days later, Kennedy, a long time critic of well-established vaccines, seemed to backtrack from that stance and said he recognizes the serious impact of the outbreak in west Texas. The U.S. government, through the Department of Health and Human Services, is providing resources, including protective vaccines, Kennedy said in a post on X Friday. HHS is sending Texas 2,000 doses of measles, mumps and rubella vaccine (MMR), as well as laboratory support to better track the virus, HHS also is communicating with public health officials "every day in all affected areas to support their response and ensure they have the resources they need," Kennedy posted on X. "We will continue to fund Texas’ immunization program. Ending the measles outbreak is a top priority for me and my extraordinary team at HHS," Kennedy wrote. In the past, Kennedy has opposed vaccine mandates for COVID-19 and promoted the disproven claim that childhood immunizations can cause autism. As of February 27, 2025, a total of 164 measles cases were reported by 9 jurisdictions: Alaska, California, Georgia, Kentucky, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York City, Rhode Island, and Texas, according to CDC data updated on Thursday. Of those 164 cases, 95% of the individuals are unvaccinated, the CDC reports. So far, 20% of those cases, or 32 out of 164, have been hospitalised. Read full story Source: Fierce Healthcare, 1 March 2025
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News ArticleSecretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. praised unconventional treatments, but didn’t mention vaccines, in an interview on Fox News about the expanding measles outbreak in West Texas. In the prerecorded interview, Kennedy said that the federal government was sending vitamin A to the epicenter of the outbreak in Gaines County. He added that the government was also helping to arrange ambulance rides. While officials from the health department have previously said that they were sending doses of the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine to the state, Kennedy, who has a history of vaccine-skeptic views, didn’t mention vaccination as an option during an interview. Kennedy instead claimed that doctors in Texas had experienced “very, very, good results” by treating the disease using the steroid budesonide, the antibiotic clarithromycin, as well as cod liver oil, which the secretary said has high amounts of vitamins A and D. The chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Infectious Diseases, Dr. Sean O’Leary noted when speaking to The New York Times that doctors sometimes use vitamins to treat children with measles, but added that cod liver oil is “by no means” a treatment based in evidence. He said he had never heard of a doctor using cod liver oil to treat the disease. Read full story Source: The Independent, 5 March 2025
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News Article
Measles, once eliminated in the USA, rises in Texas and New Mexico
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Nearly 100 people across Texas and New Mexico have caught measles, state officials said, escalating anxiety over the spread of a potentially life-threatening illness that was declared eliminated in the United States more than two decades ago. Ninety cases of measles — the majority affecting children under age 17 — were detected in Texas’s South Plains, a sprawling region in the state’s northwest, the Texas Department of State Health Services said Friday. The spread marks a significant jump from the 24 cases reported earlier this month. The DSHS warned that “additional cases are likely to occur in the outbreak area and the surrounding communities.” The United States had declared measles eliminated in 2000, meaning the disease had not spread domestically for more than 12 months. It credited the achievement to widespread inoculation campaigns after the vaccine became available in 1963. However, the national vaccination rate for measles has dropped in recent years, particularly during and after the coronavirus pandemic. Most cases recorded this year have occurred in people who were unvaccinated or whose vaccination status was unknown, the CDC said. The disease’s comeback has occurred in tandem with the rise of anti-vaccine rhetoric propagated on social media and among some public officials. Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Washington Post, 24 February 2025 -
News Article
Unvaccinated child dies of measles in west Texas as outbreak worsens
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The unfolding crisis over the spread of measles in the US among communities where scepticism towards vaccines is running high has taken a turn for the worse after a person who was hospitalized with the disease died in west Texas, the first fatality in the outbreak that began late last month. A Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center spokesperson, Melissa Whitfield, confirmed the death on Wednesday. It is the first death from measles in the US since 2015. The school-aged child who died was not vaccinated, the Texas department of state health services said, and was hospitalised in Lubbock last week after testing positive for measles, per the Texas department of state health services. The measles outbreak in rural west Texas has grown to 124 cases across nine counties, the state health department said on Tuesday. There are also nine cases across the border in eastern New Mexico. Cases are concentrated in the “close-knit, undervaccinated” community, state health department spokesperson Lara Anton said. Gaines county, which has reported 80 cases so far, has a strong homeschooling and private school community. The crisis is in Texas is hitting just as the US Health and Human Services Department (HHS) falls into the hands of the notorious vaccine skeptic Robert F Kennedy Jr. Donald Trump’s pick as health secretary has promoted the debunked theory that childhood vaccinations are linked to autism, and in one of his first acts in his new job has postponed a public meeting on immunization. Kennedy on Wednesday said that the HHS is “watching” cases, though he did not provide specifics on how the federal agency is assisting. He dismissed Texas’s outbreak as “not unusual” during the first meeting of Trump’s cabinet members in the president’s second administration. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 26 February 2025 -
Content ArticleFor some years, the World Health Organization and other international bodies have urged countries to take wide-ranging measures to reduce the spread of AMR. In the UK, such action involves multiple public bodies including the Department for Health & Social Care (DHSC), the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra), where AMR policy is led by the Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD), and the devolved administrations of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. These and other public bodies have been coordinating their activities using five-year national action plans. The National Audit Office are investigating the government’s response to AMR because it is a serious public health threat, and because the UK’s experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic showed the country was not as resilient to such threats as it expected to be. This report sets out information on the risk posed by AMR and the UK government’s response. It focuses on the response in England, where the UK government has responsibility for the NHS and key aspects of animal health and environmental policy.
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News Article
CDC scientific report resumes publication after unprecedented pause
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) resumed publishing its weekly scientific report Thursday after an unprecedented pause, but information about the bird flu virus that was supposed to appear remained on hold even as the outbreak spreads. Three studies about the H5N1 bird flu virus were scheduled to be released in the weekly Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report on 23 January according to multiple CDC officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation. But release of the results was abruptly halted when the Trump administration instructed federal health agencies to pause all external communications on 21 January. The weekly document is the agency’s primary vehicle for disseminating public health information and recommendations. Health officials, clinicians and researchers are among those who rely on the studies for vital guidance. Until last month, the MMWR has been published without interruption since 1952, even during government shutdowns. “Although I’m encouraged that the MMWR is being published again, I’m surprised and concerned that it doesn’t contain any reports on bird flu spreading in animals and people, the new strain of mpox spreading or other emerging health threats,” said Tom Frieden, a former CDC director for the Obama administration. “If political decisions determine which health threats to highlight, we’ll all be less safe,” Frieden said. “I hope the new Administration will see the value in CDC publishing information on health threats every week, without political interference.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: Washington Post, 6 February 2025 -
Content ArticleThe Covid-19 pandemic, which rapidly escalated into a global crisis that impacted millions of lives and disrupted economies around the world, was a wake-up call for the management of infectious disease outbreaks. Dr Stella Chungong and Dr Landry Ndriko Mayigane work for the Health Security Preparedness Department in the World Health Organization’s Health Emergencies Programme. In this article, they encourage countries to implement early action reviews (EARs) of disease outbreaks. EARs help countries assess their vigilance, planning and responsiveness, and could help countries be better prepared during outbreaks. The guidelines detail three time-based metrics, named 7-1-7, which offer a simple, structured approach to outbreak management: 7 Days to Detect, which measures how quickly the country can detect a suspected disease outbreak, with the aim being detection within 7 days. 1 Day to Notify, which measures the time taken to notify relevant public health authorities and stakeholders, with the aim being notification within 1 day. This goal is not new; it is consistent with the International Health Regulations (2005) that require countries to notify the relevant authorities within 24 hours of detecting a disease outbreak. 7 Days to Respond measures how quickly the country can establish a response to the outbreak, the aim being the instigation of effective response actions within 7 days.
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Content Article
WHO: Global report on infection prevention and control 2024
Mark Hughes posted an article in Infection control
This report highlights the burden of health care-associated infections (HAIs) and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and the related harm to both patients and health workers in care settings. It also presents an updated global situation analysis of the implementation of infection prevention and control (IPC) programmes at the national and health care facility levels, including a focus on the WHO regions. Headline points from this report include: On average, out of every 100 patients in acute care hospitals, seven patients in high-income countries (HICs), and 15 patients in low and middle-income countries (LMICs), will acquire at least one HAI during their hospital stay. Almost up to one third (30%) of patients in intensive care can be affected by HAIs, with an incidence that is two to 20 times higher in LMICs than in HICs, in particular among neonates. One in four (23.6%) of all hospital-treated sepsis cases are health care-associated and this increases to almost one half (48.7%) of all cases of sepsis with organ dysfunction treated in adult intensive care units. In 2023–2024, according to the system established to monitor the status of country progress towards the implementation of the AMR global action plan (the Tracking AMR Country Self-assessment Survey), 9% of countries did not yet have an IPC programme or plan. Only 39% of countries had IPC programmes fully implemented nationwide, with some being monitored for their effectiveness. -
Content ArticleThe first WISH report on tackling antimicrobial resistance (AMR) was published more than a decade ago. Section 1 of this report reviews progress on recommended actions in the five areas identified by the 2013 report. Section 2 of the report considers opportunities for action in three areas: global citizen engagement, translational science and policy and regulation, illustrated by case studies from around the world. Section 3 of the report takes stock of what has emerged from the United Nations (UN) General Assembly High-Level Meeting on tackling AMR and makes six recommendations. Recommendation 1 International organisations should put into action the 2024 UN AMR high-level meeting recommendation to establish an independent body to advise on the evidence and inform action. This panel will identify gaps in the current evidence on AMR, assess emerging and future risks of AMR, and inform cost-effective options for mitigating AMR, including global targets. Recommendation 2 Countries and international bodies should engage their citizens in tackling AMR, with clear plans to do so by 2028. Recommendation 3 Governments should give more priority to water and sanitation in addressing AMR. This includes increasing investment in water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) to reduce infections and environmental microbe exposure, and the development of national programs to surveil antibiotic residues, resistance genes and resistant pathogens in the water supply and factory effluent. Recommendation 4 By 2027, high-income countries should commit to only prescribing antibiotics (with a few defined exceptions) when need is confirmed by a diagnostic test. Low- and middle-income countries should achieve this by 2030. Recommendation 5 By 2026, all high-income countries should have introduced pull incentives for the development of new antimicrobials, to deliver on global antibiotic priorities. Recommendation 6 Global health organisations should use the forthcoming centenary of the discovery of penicillin (2028) to accelerate progress on the AMR agenda. We have four years before the centenary of the discovery of penicillin (2028) to accelerate progress on tackling AMR, so that we can keep antibiotics working for the next 100 years.
