“Policy interventions against AMR: a focus on national and international action”

Marc Mendelsen, Professor of Infectious Diseases at University of Cape Town and Director of The Trinity Challenge (July 2023)
Prof Mendelsen began by discussing the different priorities of the Global North and Global South when it comes to AMR. For example in the Global North a lot of attention is given to the ‘new drug’ pipeline, but much of the Global South lacks access to antibiotics that are already licensed, and to the diagnostics that are needed to know when to use them. In the Global South a major driver of AMR is lack of sanitation and hygiene infrastructure, and AMR rates are strongly predicted by development indicators. The rest of Prof Mendelsen’s thought-provoking talk discusses potential investments and policy actions to tackle AMR, from a truly global perspective. He highlights that improving access to antibiotics in the Global South is essential, and common goals across North and South should be diagnostics (to target antibiotics effectively) and vaccines (to prevent infections and avoid the need for antibiotics).
 
The AMR Data to Inform Local Action (ADILA) project
Dr. Catrin Moore, Senior Lecturer, St George’s, University of London (June 2023)
Dr Moore gave a comprehensive introduction to what we know about the global AMR burden, including insights from the GRAM study which she co-authored, and where the key evidence gaps are to better inform policy. She then outlined how some of these are being tackled by the ADILA project, which aims to work out how to best use AMR surveillance data from hospitals and primary health care to support countries to develop policies on improving quality of antibiotic use.

The WHO AWaRe system and global policy
Prof Mike Sharland, PID Centre for Neonatal and Paediatric Infection, St George’s, University of London (April 2023)
Prof Sharland introduced his work with the WHO Essential Medicines List and the development of the AWaRe Antibiotic Book, which provides guidance on the management of 35 common infections in children and adults in primary care and hospital settings. Notably, he highlighted that for nearly all infections, knowledge of local AMR prevalence does not affect which antibiotic is recommended for empirical treatment – the main exception being typhoid and Shigellosis, where ciprofloxacin is recommended but not if local resistance rates are high.

Surveillance of antimicrobial resistance, use, and consumption in LMICS – perspectives from the first 5 years of the Fleming Fund
Dr Toby Leslie, Global Technical Lead for the Fleming Fund, Mott MacDonald (January 2023)

Health humanities in action: How to follow the literary, historical, and political ‘careers’ of antimicrobials and resistance
Lorenzo Servitje, Associate Professor of Literature and Medicine, Lehigh University (December 2022)

Antimicrobial resistance – What’s WASH got to do with it? Evidence and experiences from Nigeria
Prof Iruka Okeke, Professor of Pharmaceutical Microbiology, University of Ibadan (November 2022)

Automation and behaviour change: important solutions to AMR problems in LMICs
Assoc Prof Direk Limmathurotsakul, Head of Microbiology at Mahidol-Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit (MORU), Mahidol University (October 2022)