Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a health and development threat to all people, regardless of country, as well as to animals and the environment. That’s why we need to come together for One Health solutions—bridging human, animal, and environmental health—to preserve the effectiveness of medicines and protect our food, our planet, and each other.

The global health community engages in World Antimicrobial Awareness Week (WAAW) every year from 18-24 November to bring awareness to the emergence, spread, and dangers of AMR, engaging One Health stakeholders, policymakers, health care workers, and the general public. AMR affects us all, and we can all take part in limiting its impact and championing sustainable solutions.

Accelerate vaccines. Stop AMR.

Download IVI’s social media cards highlighting the role of vaccines in preventing diseases and reducing the emergence and spread of AMR. Feel free to share these on social media with the message: #VaccinesSaveLives and vaccines are key to comprehensive One Health solutions to AMR.

Vaccines and AMR

Increasing access to approved and available vaccines like the typhoid conjugate vaccine (TCV) and developing new ones for the WHO’s “AMR priority bacterial pathogens” would help control the endemic diseases that these pathogens cause, reduce the risk of drug-resistant infections, and limit the unnecessary use of antibiotics.

In the short term, increasing TCV coverage in the low-resource regions most directly impacted by typhoid has the potential to protect against drug-resistant strains while reducing both antimicrobial misuse and resistance. Read more about the effectiveness of TCV introduction in a drug-resistant outbreak setting in Pakistan. In the longer term, accelerating the development of new vaccines against pathogens that are resistant to multiple antibiotics will prevent serious illness and medical complications and help keep current antibiotics effective.

IVI’s recommended reading list:

• Vaccines to tackle drug resistant infections: An evaluation of R&D opportunities |Wellcome Trust
• The global responses to AMR: momentum, success, and critical gaps | Wellcome Trust
• Typhoid conjugate vaccine is effective against drug-resistant typhoid | Coalition Against Typhoid
• Global action plan on antimicrobial resistance | WHO
• The Review on Antimicrobial Resistance | Chaired by Jim O’Neill

Upcoming webinar (12/7) | Curbing the Invisible Pandemic: Effective Solutions to Collectively Combat Antimicrobial Resistance

Co-hosted by IVI, Asian Development Bank, Institut Pasteur Korea, the Embassy of Denmark in Korea, and the International Centre for Antimicrobial Resistance Solutions

Join us for this free webinar where experts present the tools—the development of vaccines, new drugs, as well as a range of other solutions—to tackle AMR and discuss effective strategies for strengthening global and local capacities and capabilities, including national AMR surveillance and the generation of actionable data to support context-specific, evidence-based solutions.

Stopping AMR: Leveraging Data to Drive Policy

ICYMI: IVI’s RADAAR project hosted the Gamechangers webinar series, inviting AMR experts from around the world to explore innovative ways to leverage policy-relevant data to drive AMR policy. As the only Fleming Fund project fully dedicated to AMR Policy, Planning, and Advocacy, RADAAR is committed to guiding policy advocacy, capacity-building, and effective implementation of National Action Plans.

Reading list:

• Quo Vadis AMR? Reframing the AMR problem and the response to it | IVI
• The imperative of linking the “technical” with the “social” to drive policy and advocacy | IVI

Improving the Quality of AMR Surveillance in Asia

The Technical University of Denmark, in partnership with IVI, NIH Thailand, and Chulalongkorn University, is leading the EQASIA project, funded by a Fleming Fund Regional Grant, to strengthen EQA services to national reference labs across all One Health sectors in South and Southeast Asia.

EQASIA is carrying out a “One-Shop EQA program” to train and test labs in pathogen identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST)focusing on the WHO GLASS pathogens and FAO priority pathogens.

Read the team’s new report from the first EQA trial, including serotyping of Salmonella spp. as well as identification and AST testing of Salmonella spp. and Escherichia coli.

IVI Goes Blue for AMR

IVI’s AMR teams join the WHO’s color campaign to Go Blue for AMR to bring global visibility to the threat of drug resistance during WAAW 2021. Read more about IVI’s RADAAR project here and CAPTURA project here.