World Antimicrobial Awareness Week (18-24 November 2020) aims to increase awareness of global antimicrobial resistance and to encourage best practices among the general public, health workers and policy makers to avoid the further emergence and spread of drug-resistant infections.
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites resist the effects of medications, making common infections harder to treat and increasing the risk of disease spread, severe illness and death. Antimicrobials are used to fight diseases in humans, animals and plants and include antibiotic, antiviral, antifungal and antiparasitic medicines.
Antimicrobial resistant microbes are already here, and they are all around us. They are in the food we eat, the water we drink and the soil in which we grow our crops. Antimicrobial-resistant microbes also spread through the environment as antibiotic-rich animal feed, and when contaminated wastewater, sludge and manure enter waterways and soils.
Climate change is also having an impact on AMR as rising temperatures are affecting the spread of microbes in the environment. AMR is a global threat that spans human, animal, plant and environmental health. The response to AMR needs a ‘One Health’ approach, which recognizes that human, environmental and animal health are inextricably linked.
