Word Antimicrobial Awareness week
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October 24, 2022
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December 23, 2022
The World Antimicrobial Awareness Week is taking place from 18-24 November 2022 with the slogan "preventing antimicrobial resistance together"
During the Sixty-eighth World Health Assembly, held in May 2015, a global action plan was developed to tackle a growing problem: antimicrobial and antibiotic resistance, also known as AMR. Since that date, the World Antimicrobial Awareness Week (WAAW) has been celebrated every year, with the first one organised from 16 to 25 November 2015.
According to the World Health Organisation, “Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites change over time and no longer respond to medicines, making infections harder to treat and increasing the risk of disease spread, severe illness and death. As a result of drug resistance, antibiotics and other antimicrobial medicines become ineffective and infections become increasingly difficult or impossible to treat. Researchers estimated that AMR in bacteria caused an estimated 1.27 million deaths in 2019”.
The WAAW is celebrated each year to raise awareness on this ever-increasing problem. This year, it will take place from 18th to 24th of November, held by The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH). These 4 organisms put together a specific guide to support the campaign, which can be downloaded here.
As we live in a world with more and more connections between countries, AMR has grown exponentially increasing the risk for certain populations. This connection, though, can also be used as an advantage in order for governments, health associations, hospitals and other related stakeholders to work together to erase, or at least decrease, this problematic. In fact, Preventing antimicrobial resistance together is this year’s WAAW moto.
What can be done to tackle AMR?
International campaigns like the World Antimicrobial Awareness Week or approaches from the World Health Organization, like One Health, are a good example. Raise awareness on this problem and put it under the spotlight is really important for all involved stakeholders and general public. This way, the dangers of AMR and its possible solutions can be spread and more risks can be prevented. The general slogan for all AMR awareness campaigns is Handle Antimicrobials with care.
The guide for this 2022 WAAW campaign encourages all sectors and stakeholders to collaborate against AMR with several measures to take into consideration:
“To curb AMR effectively, all sectors must use antimicrobials prudently and adopt other preventive measures. The following actions can help reduce the need for antimicrobials and minimize the emergence of AMR:
- strengthen infection prevention and control in health facilities, farms and food
- industry premises;
- ensure access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene, and vaccines;
- implement best practices in food and agricultural production; and
- minimize pollution and ensure proper waste and sanitation management.”
Factsheet about AMR prepare by NeoGiANT
At NeoGiANT we are doing our best to contribute to this cause. As you know, we are developing several novel natural antimicrobial products for the control and prevention of the most relevant diseases in animal production. The goal is to develop and validate innovative natural formulations with antimicrobial and antioxidant properties from the valorisation of white grape marc, to be used in cattle, swine, poultry and farmed fish production in the FEEDING, HEALTH and REPRODUCTION areas, aiming to reduce the dependence on the use of antibiotics in animal/aquaculture production.
If you want to learn more, don’t forget to follow us on our social media accounts on Twitter and LinkedIn.
3 Comments
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[…] you know, Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) is a huge problem worldwide, which consists on some microorganisms becoming immune to antibiotics. […]
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