A challenge to modern healthcare that concerns everyone, everywhere
Almost everybody today have antibiotics to thank for the life or health of a loved one. Antibiotics makes routine procedures safe and advanced treatments possible. When infections become resistant to antibiotics, we lose our ability to treat them.
New report: Knowledge gaps in prevention of antibiotic resistance
A new study in Global Health Action, commissioned by the Foundation to Prevent Antibiotic resistance, concludes that research on preventive strategies is an under-researched field. Among the 430 000 research papers on antibiotic resistance that the study identified in an 18-year period, only 0.25% focus on preventive strategies. More cross-disciplinary research and evidence-based interventions are needed for the prevention of antibiotic resistance.
Antibiotic resistance and Sustainable Development Goals
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) guide investment in sustainable development, and the lack of inclusion of antibiotic resistance has therefore been problematic. The recent review has added one indicator of resistant infections, but most of the links between resistance and the SDG’s are still implicit. Even so, rising awareness of the importance and fragility of global health can hopefully pave way for a greater recognition of the intimate connections between antibiotic resistance and sustainable development.
Pneumonia, access and excess
In low-income countries, the issue of antibiotic overuse is complicated by that many patients lack access to antibiotics even when they really need them. Nathalie Arnqvist studies Global Health at Uppsala University and is writing her master thesis in collaboration with the Foundation to Prevent Antibiotic Resistance, and her topic is pneumonia among children in Kenya.
Why prevention?
Prevention is needed to slow down resistance development to a pace where development of new treatments can keep up
Prevention is neglected, especially approaches such as infection prevention in vulnerable groups and low-income settings
Prevention is possible – as demonstrated by great geographical variation in resistance burden