Health

World Antimicrobial Awareness Week 2022 ends with Muscat Ministerial Manifesto on AMR

The Manifesto has called upon different stakeholders in human and animal health as well as environment sectors to come together to implement AMR National Action Plans

 
By Rajeshwari Sinha
Published: Saturday 26 November 2022
WHO Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at the event in Muscat, Oman. Photo: @OmaniMOH / Twitter

The World Antimicrobial Awareness Week 2022 concluded November 25, with the Muscat Ministerial Manifesto on AMR being agreed upon at the Third Global High-level Ministerial Conference on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR).

The two-day conference which began in the Omani capital of Muscat November 24, follows two earlier high level conferences held in the Netherlands in 2014 and 2019. The theme of the meeting was The AMR Pandemic: From Policy to One Health Action.

The Muscat Ministerial Manifesto on AMR, which has been agreed upon at the conference, outlines three global targets:

  • Reducing the total amount of antimicrobials used in agrifood systems by at least 30 per cent-50 per cent by 2030.
  • Preserving critically important antimicrobials for human medicine and ending the use of medically important antimicrobials for growth promotion in animals.
  • Ensuring that ‘Access’ group antibiotics (a category of antibiotics that are affordable, safe and have a low AMR risk) represent at least 60 per cent of overall antibiotic consumption in humans by 2030.

Through the Manifesto, the countries also committed to  revise and effectively implement National Action Plans (NAP) for AMR and strengthen surveillance systems. The manifesto also calls upon the Quadripartite organisations to provide guidance and technical support for implementation of the targets.

The Manifesto has called upon different stakeholders in human health, animal health, environment sectors to come together for being able to implement AMR NAPs, through appropriate engagement of civil society, private sector, and public and private partnerships.

It has also called for mobilisation of financial resources from public and private financing institutions for NAP-AMR implementation, for enabling improved access to innovations (new antimicrobials, vaccines, diagnostics, waste management tools, alternatives to antimicrobials) and for the development and implementation of innovative and safe infection prevention and control practices.

The Manifesto has been endorsed by 34 of the 45 countries that participated at the conference. These are:

  • Algeria
  • Baharain
  • Bangladesh
  • Barbados
  • Cyprus
  • Egypt
  • India
  • Indonesia
  • Italy
  • Jordan
  • Saudi Arabia
  • Kuwait
  • Libya
  • Malaysia
  • Malta
  • Morocco
  • Mauritania
  • The Netherlands
  • Nigeria
  • Palestine
  • The Philippines
  • Qatar
  • Russia
  • Somalia
  • South Africa
  • Sudan
  • Sweden
  • Switzerland
  • Syria
  • Thailand
  • Tunisia
  • Uganda
  • The United Arab Emirates
  • Yemen

“AMR is a silent and invisible pandemic that cannot be overshadowed by other competing public health priorities,” Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Bharati Pravin Pawar, who was representing India at one of the ministerial planery panel, said.

Pawar presented the national statement for combating AMR and highlighted key steps taken by the Indian government to address AMR in human and animal sectors. She also reiterated the importance of political support and collaboration at the international, national and sub-national levels to tackle the challenge posed by AMR.

The deliberations at Muscat are set to pave the way for bold and specific political commitments which will be highlighted at the United Nations General Assembly High Level Meeting on AMR in 2024.

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