Veterinary
organizations in North America and Europe have teamed up to combat
antimicrobial resistance.
The American
Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), the Canadian Veterinary Medical
Association (CVMA) and the Federation of Veterinarians of Europe (FVE) issued
a “Joint Statement on Continuous Monitoring of Antimicrobial Use &
Antimicrobial Resistance” on Thursday, Dec. 6 that describes broad
steps and strategies veterinarians around the world can take to preserve the
effectiveness and availability of antimicrobial drugs while safeguarding
animal, public and environmental health.
In its guideline
published last year, the WHO had strongly recommended “an overall
reduction in the use of all classes of medically important antibiotics in
food-producing animals, including complete restriction of these antibiotics for
growth promotion and disease prevention without diagnosis. Healthy animals
should only receive antibiotics to prevent disease if it has been diagnosed in
other animals in the same flock, herd, or fish population. And, where possible,
sick animals should be tested to determine the most effective and prudent
antibiotic to treat their specific infection. Antibiotics used in animals
should be selected from those WHO has listed as being “least important” to
human health, and not from those classified as “highest priority critically
important”. These antibiotics are often the last line, or one of limited
treatments, available to treat serious bacterial infections in humans”.
The major
recommendations made by the veterinary organizations are as follows:
- All countries shall have
a robust regulatory system in place in respect to the authorization and
manufacture of human and veterinary medicines including antimicrobials.
- A legislative system
shall be in place to regulate the distribution and sales of these
medicinal products.
- Illegal manufacture,
distribution or sales of medicines shall be prosecuted.
- Medically or critically
important antimicrobials shall be administered to animals only with the
oversight
- A robust global network
of surveillance and monitoring systems for antimicrobial use and
resistance development shall be established.
- Antimicrobial use shall
be monitored both in the human and animal health sectors and any other
sector in which antimicrobials are used.
- The levels of
antimicrobial resistance shall be monitored in people, animals, food
products and the environment.
- Easily available,
effective, rapid and standardized diagnostic tests shall be available in
order to carry out susceptibility testing.
- The use of modern
techniques such as genomics, which trace the origin and circulation of
bacterial strains, should be promoted as appropriate in accordance with
available resources. Sufficient funding shall be available for further
research and development of rapid and affordable diagnostic tests.
- Veterinarians must retain
access to effective antimicrobials for therapeutic purposes for animals
suffering from a bacterial disease in order to safeguard animal health and
welfare and public health; therefore, antimicrobials must not be
unilaterally limited for use in humans only
Antimicrobial
resistance does not recognize borders, which means that only a concerted effort
could curtail its spread and prevent its evolution.
As President-Elect of CMAAO,
the Confederation of Medical Associations of Asia and Oceania, it shall be my
endeavor that all National Medical Associations under CMAAO attempt joining
hands with the campaign and make it a success.
India should
take the lead in this movement.
Dr KK Aggarwal
Padma Shri Awardee
President Elect Confederation of Medical
Associations in Asia and Oceania
(CMAAO)
Group Editor-in-Chief IJCP Publications
President Heart Care Foundation of India
Immediate Past National President IMA
No comments:
Post a Comment