Policy Brief 29, September 2016
Tackling Antimicrobial Resistance: Challenges for Developing Countries
On 21 September 2016, a High Level Meeting was held on antimicrobial resistance at the sides of the United Nations General Assembly. It was followed by the adoption of a political declaration. This declaration paves the way for new coordinated actions on antimicrobial resistance backed by higher political commitment, on the basis of the Global Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance (GAP) of the World Health Organization (WHO).
There is enough evidence demonstrating that antimicrobial resistance is already causing untreatable infections all over the world. For developing countries, addressing antimicrobial resistance is both a public health challenge and a development challenge. Tackling antimicrobial resistance in developing countries requires deep understanding of the particular context and needs of the rural and urban populations.
In this note, we examine four critical issues for developing countries to design an effective public health response to antimicrobial resistance, and for which international support is needed, in the form of public financing, investment and policy space for implementation.
This article was tagged: Access to Knowledge, Affordable Medicines, Capacity Building, Health, Innovation, Intellectual Property, Patent, Research and Development (R&D), Technology Transfer, United Nations (UN), World Health Organization (WHO)