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20 May 2020

Addressing antibiotic resistance in the Jordan Valley

 The ReWaterMENA project, a multi-partner, four-year initiative that started in 2018 aims to expand the safe reuse of water in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The project is funded by the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) and led by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI). The project is regional in scope and has specific activities in Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon. In Jordan, activities are conducted in partnership with the Royal Scientific Society.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) also known as the silent pandemic, is a serious global health threat and low- and middle-income countries are likely to be the most affected in terms of economic burden and public health. Deaths from drug resistant infections are projected to increase from 700,000 to 10 million annually. Antibiotics have found their way into wastewater and recently more studies have highlighted the role of wastewater as a significant environmental reservoir of AMR. This environment is conducive for the global spread of multi-resistant bacteria and other microorganisms and for antimicrobial resistant genes to persist. Wastewater treatment processes can assist in removing or reducing the antimicrobial resistant bacterial load.  However, the impact on the resistant genes is limited as they are not degradable and therefore are able to spread amongst other microbial communities in the environment through gene transfer, a process by which bacteria transfer resistant genes. In addition, another growing area of concern is the uptake of these antibiotics by crops irrigated by treated wastewater.

28 Apr 2020

The straw that might break the camel’s back: exploring the link between COVID-19 and antibiotic resistance in low- and middle-income countries

Antibiotics play a pivotal role in a pandemic both as prophylaxis, as well as pre-emptive treatment of secondary bacterial infections, which can be difficult to distinguish between viral pneumonia and bacterial pneumonia. While the number of COVID-19 infections in Africa does not rival those seen in Europe or America, they are gradually increasing and so is the fear of the impact this infection may have on the continent’s low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). According to the World Bank, nearly 645 million people live in the rural areas in sub-Saharan Africa. Three quarters of this population lack the facilities at home to wash their hands with soap and water, which is one of the key measures of preventing infection and spread of SARS-CoV-2.  Moreover, many people in LMICs are already battling malnutrition and other endemic infectious diseases, which raises the question of how they will cope with the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

 

12 Mar 2020

Digital communications used to raise awareness of AMR in Bangladesh's aquaculture practices

One of the key strategic objectives of the World Health Organisation’s global antimicrobial resistance (AMR) action plan is to improve public awareness and understanding of this issue. Very few AMR awareness campaigns have targeted the animal production sector, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) where rural communities can be geographically difficult to access via traditional face-to-face community engagement methods. Aquaculture is a major food production industry in Bangladesh and across Asia, an area which poses a significant risk to global AMR dissemination. A pilot study sought to investigate the potential for digital communication materials to rapidly and effectively communicate AMR messages to rural aquaculture farmers in Bangladesh.

29 Jan 2020

European Medicines Agency ranks animal antibiotics and appropriate ways to use them to protect public health

EMA has been instrumental in bringing together experts from around the EU to create an efficient and robust system for the evaluation and supervision of human and veterinary medicines that serves citizens throughout the region by using a One Health approach to promote integrated cooperation between human and veterinary medicines. Veterinarians across the EU have been advised to consult the infographic when deciding what antibiotics to prescribe to animals.

23 Jan 2020

Increasing antimicrobial resistace awareness through community converations

In Ethiopia, improved access to veterinary drugs has led to their increasing use in food-producing animals. The animal health extension service that ought to educate and advise community members about integrated animal health management strategies is limited. Community members, including livestock keepers, have limited access to animal health education, advisory and training services. Livestock keepers often buy veterinary drugs from roadside markets and self-treat their animals without considering the consequences of administering these drugs themselves. Most of these small-scale farmers have limited knowledge of the link between misuse of veterinary drugs and the emergence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), which results in treatment failures in animals and humans. To address this knowledge and information gap, the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock in Ethiopia tested a community-based animal health extension approach using ‘community conversations’ to engage community members and local service providers in collaborative learning and joint action processes to increase AMR awareness. 

8 Jan 2020

Quick Q&A with newly appointed head of CGIAR AMR Hub, Arshnee Moodley

CGIAR AMR Hub is pleased to welcome Arshnee Moodley, an associate professor from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark to lead the CGIAR AMR Hub hosted and led by ILRI. Having completed her undergraduate degree in 2002 from the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa and received her PhD from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark in 2008, she has spent 12 years supervising and teaching students at the University of Copenhagen on infection microbiology, antimicrobial resistance, bacterial typing and non-antibiotic alternatives. ILRI’s bioscience writer, Ekta Patel caught up with her on some quick Q&A’s to get to know her a little better and to better understand her vision for the CGIAR AMR Hub. 

30 Dec 2019

AMR Newsletter Issue 3

October to December 2019 issue provides an overview of activities taking place by the CGIAR AMR Hub led by ILRI that has been developed with our partners for this quarter

5 Dec 2019

Antimicrobial resistance through the eyes of journalists in Kenya

World Antibiotic Awareness Week (WAAW) is celebrated every year in November, this year the CGIAR AMR Hub at the International Livestock research Institute (ILRI) jointly with Kenya's ministries of Health and Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Irrigation hosted, at the ILRI campus in Nairobi, a media sensitization on raising antimicrobial resistance (AMR) awareness.  Twenty-five journalists from a cross section of Kenya's media houses and magazine publishers attended the event and were joined by key speakers and observers from the Ministry of Health, the Directorate of Veterinary Services, the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) and the University of Nairobi (UONBI).

 

5 Dec 2019

Understanding context specific AMR interventions with experts representing different scientific disciplines

A four-day antimicrobial resistance (AMR) workshop at WorldFish in Penang, Malaysia aimed to inform the development of an AMR database platform for interventions, named AMRIntervene, and to validate factors that contribute to interventions that have successfully or less successfully addressed AMR. In addition, the workshop aimed to create a visual model of the inter-related factors influencing AMR in the south east Asian food system context that will be used to explore how promising interventions, if implemented could impact AMR and other parts of the system in the future. 

21 Nov 2019

Swedish University of Agricultural Science researchers behind international manual on antibiotics

The Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) participates in the launch of the manual “Prudent and efficient use of antimicrobials in pigs and poultry”, which aims to reduce the use of antibiotics in animal husbandry. The launch took place at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization FAO headquarters in Rome. Also included was Sweden's ambassador to Italy, representatives from the Ministry of Industry, FAO's Deputy Director General and Chief Veterinarian. The launch is part of World Antibiotics Awareness Week (WAAW) which is currently underway.