Giving Compass' Take:

• In this story from Sci Dev Net, Ruth Douglas discusses the consequences of antimicrobial resistance that we could see in the next couple of decades.

• This article highlights the threats that antimicrobial resitance create, and offers some approaches that intergovernmental organizations might use. What role should the nonprofit sector play in tackling this issue?

• To learn about one approach to fight antimicrobial resistance, click here.

...[A] UN report warned that drug-resistant diseases could cause 10 million deaths a year by 2050 if nothing is done to tackle the spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

Without a coordinated effort to address the problem, drug-resistant diseases could force up to 24 million people into extreme poverty by 2030 and cause as much damage to the global economy as the 2008 global financial crisis, the report by the UN Interagency Coordinating Group (IACG) on Antimicrobial Resistance said.

AMR occurs when bacteria mutate or change in ways that cut the effectiveness of a drug, allowing them to survive and multiply.

Diseases resistant to existing medicines already claim the lives of at least 700,000 people a year, including 230,000 people who die from multidrug-resistant tuberculosis.

Misuse and overuse of existing antimicrobials in humans, animals and plants are among the drivers of rapidly accelerating AMR, [one] report says. It also highlights inadequate water and sanitation facilities, inequitable access to affordable medicines, and poor food safety and waste management as factors.

The problem is “complex and multifaceted” but “not insurmountable”, according to the IACG, whose recommendations include the creation of a global independent panel on AMR, akin to the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Read the full article about antimicrobial resistance by Ruth Douglas at Sci Dev Net