A new study has suggested that the global response to antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is “insufficient”, with Ireland’s national action plan ranking 18th out of 114 countries analysed.
Researchers at the universities of Leeds, Edinburgh and Hamburg found that national action plans developed by over 100 countries do not adequately factor in monitoring and evaluation.
Their study concluded that the global response to AMR, and preparedness for the predicted challenges of AMR, “require improvement” in all locations around the world.
AMR refers to changes in microbes, particularly bacteria, that cause the drugs used to treat infections to become less effective, according to the University of Leeds.
National action plans were designed after encouragement from the World Health Organisation (WHO), which has declared AMR one of the top 10 public health threats facing humanity.
Findings
The 114 action plans, which were created in 2020-2021, were evaluated against 54 elements such as education, stewardship and accountability, and each awarded a score out of 100.
A mean score out of 100 for each plan was then taken from these results. Of all areas evaluated, accountability and feedback mechanisms were the joint-lowest scoring, followed by education.
Ireland’s national action plan ranked 18th with 69 points, just after the Netherlands, the Philippines, and Spain all at 71 points and Austria at 70 points.
Norway scored highest with 85 points, followed by the US (84 points) and the UK (83 points). Sweden; Denmark; Germany; Japan; Australia; Switzerland; and France were also among the ten best performing countries.
The lowest scoring countries were Ukraine and Sierra Leone with 29 points each, and Barbados and Micronesia with 28 points, according to the study.
Training and professional education across human health, veterinary and agricultural sectors were insufficient in many countries, with several lacking a sustainable workforce strategy to deliver antimicrobial stewardship policies, the study found.
Countries scored well on participation, demonstrating a shared awareness that AMR can only be successfully addressed through engagement, with multiple sectors spanning human, animal and environmental health.
Antimicrobial resistance
Governments across the world must strengthen their responses to AMR, the research team and lead author of the study, which was published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, Jay Patel said.
Countries were highly focused on designing AMR policies, and thinking about what tools would be required to implement those, according to Patel.
However, he said, their national action plans to tackle the risk of AMR did generally not consider how the countries would monitor and evaluate the impact of those efforts.
Thus, the international response may be “inadequate” to meet the scale and severity of AMR, Patel said stressing that this is particularly concerning in low and middle-income countries where action plan activities often lack sustainable funding.
“The available evidence also suggests that simply developing a national action plan may not necessarily mean a country is more prepared to respond to the threat of AMR.
“Our study shows that the global response to AMR, and preparedness for the predicted challenges of AMR, require improvement in all locations around the world,” the lead author said.