Concrete action needed in the fight against antimicrobial resistance

Geneva/New York – Ahead of the second United Nations (UN) high-level meeting on antimicrobial resistanceAMR – when microorganisms such as bacteria, viruses and fungi evolve and survive despite the use of antibiotics – can make medical care less effective and make treatment more difficult, longer and costly for patients and providers. Tomorrow at the (AMR) Summit, where world leaders will gather to agree commitments to advance the global response to AMR, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) calls on governments to take swift, bold action to turn this political declaration into meaningful progress against drug resistance.

Since the first declaration nearly a decade ago, progress against AMR has been inadequate and uneven, with low- and middle-income countries – and particularly humanitarian contexts – bearing the greatest burden of drug-resistant infections yet remaining the least equipped to respond. Drawing on years of experience tackling drug resistance around the world, MSF urges governments to act on the commitments made and take an ambitious set of follow-up steps to empower those most affected by AMR to prevent, detect and respond to it.

AMR is a leading cause of death worldwide, causing 4.95 million deaths in 2019 alone, with recent estimates showing that the threat is still growing at alarming rates, potentially causing 8.2 million deaths annually by 2050.https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)01867-1/fulltext

“Many of the low-resource and humanitarian settings we work in have high rates of drug-resistant infections, a major reason for which is that health workers do not have the tools they need to prevent, detect and respond to AMR,” says Dr. Christos Christou, MSF International President. “The UN Political Declaration on Antimicrobial Resistance is a welcome step towards strengthening the global AMR response and articulates important aspirations for global equity and solidarity.”