Reducing ‘Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR)’ through prevention as the only priority

Have you yet realized that sometimes when you take medication, we do not get better?  This is so because the microorganism we are treating against has developed resistance to that particular medication thus Antimicrobial resistance (AMR).  Antimicrobial resistance to some people is Antibiotic resistance. 

Antimicrobial resistance has been classified and reported as a global emerging public health threat that is threatening the populations and its estimated that if no action is taken against AMR, it will be the leading cause of death with 10 million victims per year by 2050. The World health organization passed a resolution for the member states to prevent the problem through a global approach action plan. Uganda has on different occasions prevented the problem through some established organizations like The Uganda National Academy of sciences who have been committed to reducing the problem. AMR at first was regarded as a human medical issue through the hospital-acquired diseases that affected the immune-suppressed patients. However, AMR has continually spread across spectrums from the immunosuppressed to the entire population and to animals like poultry, livestock and others. However, as the community and the population, we are left with the option of prevention, and below are some of the recommended strategies to prevent AMR in our community:

Improving sanitation and prevention of spread of infection:  For health, prevention is the better priority. It is estimated that improving sanitation in low-income countries would decrease the use of antibiotics to treat diarrhea by 60%.

Reducing on the use of unnecessary antimicrobials in human life, agriculture and their dissemination into the environment: The vast majority of global antimicrobial consumption comes from agriculture and aquaculture. The use of antibiotics solely for infection prevention and more importantly, growth promotion, should be considered dangerous and unnecessary

Global surveillance of drug resistance and microbial consumptio: The government should emphasize on acquiring new resistance, monitor the cases already present and to anticipate future threats. Therefore, three areas require better structure and information antibiotic consumption among humans and animals, resistance rates for the available drugs and research knowledge on the molecular foundations of AMR.

Public education: It’s the better option to educate our societies about the danger behind the overuse and misuse of antimicrobials, as patients still commonly demand them from doctors or buy them over-the-counter. 

Together as the community we can solely reduce the burden through mainly emphasizing checkups before prescription and also maintain the better sanitation in our home so as to reduce the AMR problem because for a better health, prevention is the only option.
For more information: http://Healthpromotioncorner.blogspot.com