For only the fourth time in its 70-year history, the UN has decided to confront a major health threat. This week, all 193 member states signed up to a coordinated fight against antibiotic-resistant infections.
Yesterday’s resolution in New York declared this a global threat of the highest order, calling on member states to act so that coming generations will not slip back into the pre-antibiotic era.
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As a body that is more usually concerned with global security, relief aid and human rights, the UN rarely enters the health arena. In past years, it has led action on HIV, Ebola and the rising tide of chronic illness.
So why do we need the UN to take the reins this time?
Finding solutions for antibiotic resistance has primarily fallen on the dedicated efforts of global health professionals toiling in this field for more than a decade.
This squadron of colleagues from various disciplines and sectors has built an evidence base on antimicrobial use and resistance, developed and spread best practice, and set programmes in motion to assist poorer countries, in particular, to develop their own national plans.
Global push needed
But the growth of antibiotic resistance continues, and it seems that country-level efforts are not enough: it is a global epidemic. The UN meeting creates a once-in-a-generation opportunity to set tough global goals. The key is to seize the moment.
Goals could include quantitative targets for reducing inappropriate antibiotic use while ensuring those who really need them, no matter where, get them. There should be a recommendation to phase them out as growth promoters in food animals.
A high-level UN coordinating body should also be established, as with for HIV. Now is the time to convert these recommendations into hard targets that are measurable and accountable.
It is not enough for countries, politicians, businesses and the healthcare community to make pledges for change. They must know that they’re being watched, but also that our community of experts stands ready to help.
Platform for action
Will the heads of state who assembled in New York and learned about antibiotic resistance go home energised and determined to do their part? It may be naive to think so, but we don’t think that means nothing will happen.
In 2001, a similar session on AIDS had a profound catalytic effect on global control of that disease. Like antibiotic resistance, it was not early in the epidemic, but at a time when considerable momentum had built around the world to take on major issues – not least the prohibitive cost of AIDS drugs.
This was the inflection point at which the AIDS curve began to bend. It happened not as a direct result of the UN resolution, but because activists used the event as a touchstone to get commitments, and then ensured they were kept.
What we’ve done so far on antibiotic resistance is clearly not enough, but the UN meeting is a start in addressing this. Join us on this journey: we dare not fail.
