MANILA, Nov. 18- The World Health Organization warned Tuesday that antimicrobial resistance is already causing a global health emergency, threatening to erase nearly a century of medical progress as common infections become increasingly challenging to treat.
Saia Ma’u Piukala, the WHO regional director for the Western Pacific, said in a statement released Tuesday that the discovery of antimicrobials almost a century ago changed the course of modern medicine.
But that is changing, he said, due to misuse and overuse of these medicines, bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites are quickly changing and becoming resistant to antimicrobials.
One in six bacterial infections worldwide now resists standard antibiotics, Piukala said. Nearly 5 million deaths in 2019 were associated with bacterial antimicrobial resistance, including about 1.3 million directly caused by drug-resistant infections.
In the Western Pacific region alone, as many as 5.2 million people could die from drug-resistant bacterial infections between 2020 and 2030, according to WHO estimates.
“Antimicrobials are precious, fragile tools — and we are in danger of losing them,” Piukala said, adding the current alarming trends demand collective regional and global action.
At the 2024 UN General Assembly, governments adopted a political declaration committing to a 10 percent reduction in deaths from drug-resistant infections by 2030.
Despite those commitments, rural clinics in many countries still lack basic diagnostics and access to antibiotics, while hospitals struggle to implement antimicrobial stewardship programs because of staffing shortages and delayed laboratory reporting.
Piukala said curbing antimicrobial resistance starts with responsible antibiotic use. “When people take antibiotics only when necessary, they help protect everyone.
When clinicians prescribe wisely, they safeguard hard-won medical advances. When hospitals strengthen infection control and invest in reliable, affordable diagnostics, lives are saved,” Piukala said. (Xinhua)
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