Giving Compass' Take:

• Here are critical takeaways from the UN report on superbugs that address the global health threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). 

• The author mentions that collaboration between sectors is necessary. How can donors partner with development aid organizations to understand what financing solutions should look like?  

• Here is a new way to stop antibiotic-resistant superbugs. 

On April 29, experts from the United Nations and other organizations released a groundbreaking report – the culmination of more than two-and-a-half years of work – that calls for urgent global on one of the most pressing and challenging global health threats of our time: antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

Globally, approximately 700,000 people die every year from drug-resistant infections. In some countries, it’s estimated that up to 82% of infections are resistant to at least one of the most commonly used antibiotics.

If we do not act, estimates show our everyday antibiotics and other tools we use to fight infection will rapidly fail – and superbugs will get so strong we may not have the tools to stop them. The toll could rise to 10 million deaths per year, with the majority of these deaths anticipated to happen in Africa and Asia.

The time to act on AMR is now. But AMR is not a problem that the UN alone can solve. It will take cross-cutting solutions across different sectors to successfully combat this challenge. This is why the recommendations from the IACG are so critical – and timely. Wading through the acronyms related to AMR can be challenging, but here are a few of the biggest takeaways from the report that are important to know.

  • We’re not doing enough to get ahead of this problem. 
  • Collective action must be at the center of our response to AMR. 
  • We need to urgently accelerate public support and political momentum to address AMR.
  • The UN must step up its “one health” approach to working on AMR.
  • We can’t fix it if we don’t know how much it costs.
  • We need more evidence to help make better informed decisions on AMR.

Read the full article about the fight against superbugs by Kate Dodson at the United Nations Foundation.