World leaders meeting in New York have backed a new set of goals and pledged to find US$100 million in funding to address the problem of drug-resistant bacteria, a global crisis that is all the more acute in the poorest countries. The issue was taken to the UN General Assembly for the first time since 2016 because the world’s arsenal of effective drugs is rapidly running out. Bacteria are constantly evolving and many have now developed resistance to existing medications, while it has been almost 40 years since the last new class of antibiotic was launched.
According to analysis published in The Lancet, 4.95 million deaths a year result from or are linked to infections resistant to the antibiotics available to treat them—a phenomenon known as antimicrobial resistance. And there are huge gaps in development of and access to new medicines.
The political declaration adopted by governments has set a target of reducing deaths from antimicrobial resistance by 10 per cent by 2030. “That might sound modest, but it’s a good start in terms of being able to establish the political ambition,” said Jeremy Knox, head of policy for infectious disease at the UK-based health research foundation Wellcome. The declaration calls on countries collectively to deliver US$100 million in funding to kick-start progress, as well as ongoing national financing to help at least 60 per cent of countries fund national action plans to tackle the problem by 2030.
It includes a commitment to establish.