Tackling antimicrobial resistance

The fight against antimicrobial resistance will take focus from November 19-24 in celebrating World Antimicrobial Awareness Week, part of a global campaign to increase awareness of the public health crisis of antimicrobial use and resistance.

Antimicrobials are medicines used to fight diseases. The world is experiencing increasing levels of antimicrobial resistance, which occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites – the agents that cause illness – resist the effects of medication. This resistance makes common infections harder to treat, thereby increasing the risk of disease spread, severe illness, and death.

Bacteria are extremely resilient, so antimicrobial resistance has always existed as part of their survival system. However, human activity has intensified antimicrobial resistance. Multiple factors – such as overuse of medicines in humans, livestock, and agriculture, as well as poor access to clean water, sanitation, and hygiene – have accelerated the threat of antimicrobial resistance worldwide. For example, antimicrobial-resistant pathogens can be spread through the food people eat. As a result, resistance has developed for most of the antibiotics available. The challenge, therefore, is to slow down this resistance.

Locally, the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, in collaboration with the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture, is targeting the food chain by developing a surveillance programme to monitor antimicrobial use and resistance in the agriculture sector, specifically animal products in the first phase. The surveillance programme will focus on the priority animal-production systems (poultry, pork, etc), the points along the food chain and the types of bacteria or other microorganisms to be monitored and the mechanisms for carrying out this surveillance.

During this week, government regulators for food safety, members of academia, and stakeholders in the various animal-production systems will meet to start the design and development of this integrated antimicrobial resistant surveillance programme for the livestock sector. Jamaica will, therefore, join several countries in the region and worldwide that are taking action to address this urgent challenge under the theme ‘Antimicrobials: Handle With Care.’

The surveillance programme will enable government authorities to gain a better understanding of antimicrobial usage at the farm level, antimicrobial resistance trends along the food chain, and the sources of food-borne disease infections related to animal production. The Government and stakeholders in these food industries will be armed with the relevant information to take corrective action.

The Veterinary Services Division of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries is spearheading this initiative in partnership with the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture.