Building on the momentum of increased collaboration, WHO, FAO, OIE and UNEP have developed a Strategic Framework for collaboration on antimicrobial resistance (AMR). This Framework reflects the joint work of the four organizations to advance a One Health response to AMR at global, regional and country levels. It broadly supports the implementation of the five pillars of the Global Action Plan on AMR, as well as strengthening global AMR governance.

Pandemic prevention and preparedness are at the top of everyone’s mind as the world continues to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic. During this time, however, the threats posed by the silent pandemic of antimicrobial resistance to human, animal, and plant health, food production, and the environment have not ceased and are steadily growing. More than ever before, we know that addressing the interlinked and multi-faceted challenges posed by antimicrobial resistance requires that we work together – across sectors, government, academic disciplines, civil society, the private sector, and the multilateral system – to advance a One Health approach. This strategic framework on antimicrobial resistance represents an important milestone in the decades-long history of collaboration between the Tripartite organizations - a collaboration that now is even stronger as a result of our close engagement with the United Nations Environment Programme. The framework sets out for the first time what our organizations – as leaders in the multilateral system on the human, animal, plant, and environmental health – will do jointly to support countries’ efforts to scale up national responses to antimicrobial resistance. Countries and partners are strongly encouraged to replicate and amplify the One Health approach used in the framework, based on their own contexts and needs.

"In May 2015, the Sixty-eighth World Health Assembly adopted the Global action plan on antimicrobial resistance, which reflects the global consensus that AMR poses a profound threat to human health. One of the five strategic objectives of the Global action plan is to strengthen the evidence base through enhanced global surveillance and research. The Global Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance System (GLASS) has been developed to facilitate and encourage a standardized approach to AMR surveillance globally and in turn support the implementation of the Global action plan on antimicrobial resistance. This manual addresses the early phase of implementation of GLASS, focussing on surveillance of resistance in common human bacterial pathogens. The intended readership of this publication is public health professionals and health authorities responsible for national AMR surveillance. It outlines the GLASS standards and describes the road map for implementation of the system between 2015 and 2019. Further development of GLASS will be based on the lessons learnt during this period"--Publisher's description.

Master's Thesis from the year 2017 in the subject Medicine - Pharmacology, grade: 70, University of Hertfordshire, language: English, abstract: Some years after the first use of penicillin, resistant bacteria emerged. The phenomenon of resistance has continued to show up similarly for almost every marketed antibiotic product, endangering the safety of humans, animals and the environment. This major threat has been proven to have a worldwide impact. In response, national action plans must be implemented following "anti-resistance" guidance: WHO’s Global Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance (GAP-AMR) in collaboration with FAO and OIE. These plans are to be adopted by 2017, aiding the protection of antibiotic medicines adhering to the approach of One Health. The aim of the current study was to review the process of such adoptions in the EU and US, understand its practicality, challenges and any out of scope issues.With the use of a phenomenological approach, this qualitative study found that thanks to the general population’s increment in knowledge and awareness, collaboration and engagement grew stronger, especially among policy makers and pharmaceutical companies, but also healthcare leaders and providers, physicians and veterinarians, and patients. When trying to discover new antibiotic drugs, serendipity is not an option, therefore, companies must be incentivised to increase their antibiotic pipelines. During the analysis of the inclusion of the plans, a paradox appeared: due to the reduced use of antibiotics, it is difficult to motivate drug developers to increase research in new medicines and alternative forms of treatment. The research concluded, that legislation must be focused on supporting changes that will ease entry of antibiotics to the market (i.e. with a congruent regulatory pathway and/or with financial support of governments) to allow a practical inclusion of the national plans.

Antibiotic resistance development is a natural process of adaption leading to a limited lifespan of antibiotics. Unnecessary and inappropriate use of antibiotics favours the emergence and spread of resistant bacteria. A crisis has been building up over decades, so that today common and life-threatening infections are becoming difficult or even impossible to treat. It is time to take much stronger action worldwide to avert an ever increasing health and economic burden. A new WHO publication "The evolving threat of antimicrobial resistance--Options for action" describes examples of policy activities that have addressed AMR in different parts of the world. The aim is to raise awareness and to stimulate further coordinated efforts.

This Open Access volume provides in-depth analysis of the wide range of ethical issues associated with drug-resistant infectious diseases. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is widely recognized to be one of the greatest threats to global public health in coming decades; and it has thus become a major topic of discussion among leading bioethicists and scholars from related disciplines including economics, epidemiology, law, and political theory. Topics covered in this volume include responsible use of antimicrobials; control of multi-resistant hospital-acquired infections; privacy and data collection; antibiotic use in childhood and at the end of life; agricultural and veterinary sources of resistance; resistant HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria; mandatory treatment; and trade-offs between current and future generations. As the first book focused on ethical issues associated with drug resistance, it makes a timely contribution to debates regarding practice and policy that are of crucial importance to global public health in the 21st century.

An accessible overview of the challenges in tackling AMR, and the economic and policy responses of the 'One Health' approach. It will appeal to policy-makers seeking to strengthen national and local polices tackling AMR, as well as students and academics who want an overview of the latest scientific evidence regarding effective AMR policies.