March 9, 2018
Nobel laureates, cadre of change-makers praise U荔枝视频 study results that inform World Health Organization guidelines
Scanning electron micrograph of Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).
NIAID_Flickr under licence by Creative Commons Wiki
荔枝视频 researchers are members of one of two teams behind new World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines being praised by the likes of Kofi Annan and Jimmy Carter in the global fight against anti-microbial resistance (AMR).
The research, conducted in part by U荔枝视频鈥檚 O鈥橞rien Institute for Public Health at the (CSM), shows that restricting the use of antibiotics in food animals can reduce AMR, increasingly a threat as health-care providers across the globe come face to face with infections they cannot treat.
Based on the analysis, the WHO released calling on food animal producers to cease using antibiotics as a means to prevent infection or boost growth.
The O鈥橞rien Institute team was one of two selected by the WHO through a global competition to inform the United Nations鈥 strategy to combat AMR. As part of their winning bid, the 荔枝视频 team, comprised of O鈥橞rien Institute researchers from , the and the CSM, conducted a meta-analysis of 175 studies on the topic of antibiotic resistance in animals. Twenty-one of those looked at antibiotic resistance in humans.
The analysis was published in , and more recently, garnered support from an elite cadre of global change-makers founded by Nelson Mandela, the anti-apartheid revolutionary and former President of South Africa. The group 鈥 currently chaired by Kofi Annan, the former UN Secretary-General 鈥 is a who鈥檚 who of international politics and activism that includes Nobel Peace laureates, former presidents, prime ministers and leaders working collectively for peace, justice and human rights.
The Elders welcomed the new WHO guidelines signed by Annan and jointly addressed to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Rome, the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) in Paris, and the WHO in Geneva.
鈥淲e write to express our serious and growing concern at the risk posed to human health and development by antimicrobial resistance (AMR),鈥 states the letter, which was also signed by the former prime minister of Norway, and former Director-General of the WHO, Gro Harlem Brundtland.
鈥淥veruse and misuse of antibiotics in both animals and humans is contributing to AMR. We note that in some countries approximately 80 per cent of total consumption of medically important antibiotics is in the animal sector, largely for growth promotion in healthy animals鈥 We urge the FAO and the OIE to give these guidelines their wholehearted support.鈥
Each year in the United States, more than two million people are infected by "superbugs," bacteria that have become resistant to antibiotics. More than 23,000 Americans die annually from these infections, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
And Canada is not immune, warns Dr. John Conly, a U荔枝视频 professor of in the Department of Medicine, co-director of the Snyder Institute for Chronic Diseases, and a member of both the WHO Advisory Group for Integrated Surveillance of Antimicrobial Resistance and the O鈥橞rien Institute.
In a co-written article this week, Conly and veterinary bacteriologist John Prescott, PhD, point out the rates of superbug infections at paediatric and adult hospitals have increased over the last year.
鈥淢odern medicine is not possible without effective antibiotics. Infections with antimicrobial-resistant bacteria increase both the degree of illness and death rates, with enormous social and economic costs,鈥 they write.
A global response is underway, , but Conly and Prescott write, 鈥淐anada needs to do more 鈥 much more.鈥
鈥淲e need a national Action Plan for 2018, a timely roadmap with concrete actions directed at the regional and local levels, where most decisions take place. Such a roadmap should include robust public awareness and education campaigns; enhanced infection prevention and control; surveillance of use and resistance to antibiotics; improved regulatory processes; and more research into reducing antibiotic overuse across the human-animal-environment ecosystem.
鈥淚t is time for Canada to step forward and not only place its own house in order, but demonstrate a global leadership role in stemming the tide against the antibiotic resistance tsunami.鈥
Dr. John Conly is a professor in the departments of Medicine, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, and Microbiology, Immunology and Infectious Diseases at the CSM and a co-founder of W21C.