Viewpoints

Moving from paper to action – The status of National AMR Action Plans in African countries – by Mirfin Mpundu

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The threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) could reverse gains made by modern medicine. In May 2015, the World Health Assembly endorsed the Global Action Plan (GAP) on AMR that called upon member states to develop National Action Plans (NAPs) to address AMR. NAPs include human health, food systems and the environment and requires a coordinated response to address its complex, multi-faceted nature.

Knowledge sharing for antimicrobial research: AntibioticDB and SPARK and why researchers should use them – by Jack Stone and Maria Laura Ciusa

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The number of drug-resistant bacterial infections is rising across the world and new treatments are urgently required1. One of the barriers to discovering new antibiotics is a lack of information sharing. Platforms about antimicrobial molecules have been created to address this challenge, so researchers working in the field can benefit from each other’s insights.

Getting the most out of antimicrobial surveillance – by Mariana Castanheira

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Surveillance has been promoted as an important tool to monitor the prevalence of antimicrobial resistance. Beyond this purpose, surveillance is conducted to identify the increase in prevalence of certain pathogens, monitor the impact of prescribing habits and evaluate changes caused by infection control practices and public health guidelines. It is also used to direct drug developers to the priority target pathogens and provide data for new drug submissions to regulatory agencies.

The antibiotics marketplace collapse: It’s just math and it’s a solvable equation

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There is a growing awareness that companies with newly approved antibiotics face substantial economic challenges. Yet we remain concerned that there is a general lack of understanding of the mechanics driving the collapse of the industry. Understanding the root causes and identifying which are addressable through alternate strategies or changes in behaviors vs. those that are a fundamental feature of the antibacterial marketplace is critical to finding lasting solutions.

Diagnostics to safeguard new and current antibiotics for gonorrhoea

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Gonorrhoea and chlamydia are the two most common sexually transmitted infections in the world. Their similar symptoms make it challenging to differentiate between the infections and treat appropriately. As a consequence, syndromic treatment of gonorrhoea leads to inappropriate use of antibiotics. Cassandra Kelly-Cirino and Cecilia Ferreyra from FIND discuss why new and better diagnostics are needed to safeguard drugs to treat gonorrhoea.