The WHO has declared Nov. 16-22 World Antibiotic Awareness Week. As resistance increases, so do concerns from the medical and scientific community that the problem is quickly spiraling of control. The World Health Assembly in May called on all member countries to adopt appropriate strategies for dealing with it by 2017.
During WAAW, The Lancet will publish a series about resistant and antibiotics access.
Here are five thoughts from an editorial, "Antimicrobial resistance: The Hydra among us", covering the state of the antibiotic resistance scourge leading up WAAW from The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal.
• Most low- and middle-income countries lack national surveillance systems for effectively monitoring the prevalence of antimicrobial resistance. National implementation of stewardship programs is not possible without this data.
• Often in these countries, private citizens can purchase antibiotics over the counter without prescription and resistance becomes a real risk because low doses of antibiotic are taken regularly. This is a favorable scenario for the development of resistance.
• A decade ago, the European Union banned the use of antibiotics as a livestock growth promoter in agriculture and found this did not result in substantial economic impact for farmers, particularly in instances where good hygiene protocol were in place. Few countries have followed this example but California is the first U.S. state to do so. This will be a particularly valuable and crucial strategy in developing countries that primarily produce animal products.
• Rapid action is needed globally to gather comprehensive data on the state of antibiotic resistance and hygiene standards for both healthcare settings and the agricultural sector.
• The Centre for Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy published The State of the World's Antibiotics report this year, which recommended that inappropriate use in these two domains — humans without medical prescription or an option for alternative treatment and widespread use in animal agriculture — as the two primary drivers to combat.