WHO, FAO Team Up To Regulate Antimicrobial Drugs

The World Health Organisation (WHO), Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) have joined efforts to regulate the use of antimicrobial drugs so as to manage the rampant rate of antimicrobial resistance in humans, animals, and plants.

To raise awareness for antimicrobial resistance, these organisations on Friday launched the new One Health Global Leaders Group on Antimicrobial Resistance (HYPERLINK), a group that will be dedicated to ‘draw global attention and action to preserve antimicrobial medicines and avert the disastrous consequences of antimicrobial resistance’.

In the WHO press release, the director generals of the organisations described the rapid rise of antimicrobial resistance as one of the ‘world’s most urgent threat to humans, animals, plants and environmental health’. This resistance, it was said, endangered food security, international trade, economic development and negatively influenced the progress of the Sustainable development Goals (SDGs). If left to go on, the resistance would increase the cost in health care, cause treatment failure and lead to severe illnesses and death.