Publication: Pulling Together to Beat Superbugs Knowledge and Implementation Gaps in Addressing Antimicrobial Resistance
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2019-10-10
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2019-10-10
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The rise of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), if not stopped, threatens to plunge humanity back into an era of health uncertainty few people alive today can remember. AMR does not follow national borders; its consequences affect the lives of everyone on the planet and blight the prospects of future generations. Yet with the right approach and intelligent investment, the AMR tide can be turned. Curbing the rise of AMR demands that it be refocused as a development problem. Addressing AMR is necessary to attain many of the sustainable development goals (SDGs), and it is likewise true that making progress on several SDGs and their specific targets also will contribute to tackling AMR. This virtuous synergy should be recognized more widely and exploited more fully.
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“World Bank. 2019. Pulling Together to Beat Superbugs Knowledge and Implementation Gaps in Addressing Antimicrobial Resistance. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/32552 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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Publication Pulling Together to Beat Superbugs(Washington, DC, 2019-10)The rise of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), if not stopped, threatens to plunge humanity back into an era of health uncertainty few people alive today can remember. AMR does not follow national borders; its consequences affect the lives of everyone on the planet and blight the prospects of future generations. Yet with the right approach and intelligent investment, the AMR tide can be turned. Curbing the rise of AMR demands that it be refocused as a development problem. Addressing AMR is necessary to attain many of the sustainable development goals (SDGs), and it is likewise true that making progress on several SDGs and their specific targets also will contribute to tackling AMR. This virtuous synergy should be recognized more widely and exploited more fully.Publication Drug-Resistant Infections(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017-03)This report examines the economic and development consequences of antimicrobial resistance(AMR)—the capacity that disease-causing microorganisms acquire to resist the drugs we've createdto fight them. The report uses World Bank Group economic simulation tools to put a price tag onAMR's destructive impacts on the global economy from 2017 through 2050, if adequate measuresaren't taken to contain the AMR threat. The report highlights actions low- and middle-income countries and their development partners can take to counter AMR, and estimates the investment required. It shows that putting resources into AMR containment now is one of the highest-yield investments countries can make. Antimicrobials are drugs that destroy disease-causing microbes, also called pathogens, such as certain bacteria, viruses, parasites, and fungi. 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What is the level of resources, currently available to the health sector? How can public spending be oriented to meet the strategic objectives of the Ministry of Health? This report attempts to conduct an analysis of empirical trends in, and patterns of health services utilization, health outcomes, public health expenditures, and provision of health services, and, discuss the empirical findings of the analysis. The broad objectives of the report are to: document changes in health outcomes, and health services utilization, private/public health spending, and provision of public, and private health services during the last seven years; and, identify the causes, and factors influencing these changes. Policy responses to the analysis are not provided in this report. Rather, the information is provided in the expectation that interested parties will find it useful for future policy deliberations.Publication Sustaining Action Against Antimicrobial Resistance(Washington, DC, 2022-10-17)Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) occurs when microbes, bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites, evolve in ways that reduce medicine’s ability to fight them. AMR has made many infections, particularly bacterial infections, increasingly difficult or even impossible to treat. Without effective medicines, the number of people with severe microbial infections will increase, as will the number of people who die from these infections. In 2019, 4.95 million deaths were associated with AMR, with the highest AMR-attributable death rates occurring in western sub-Saharan Africa.8 While AMR is a natural evolutionary process that occurs over time, many human-led behaviors have increased its occurrence. The main drivers of AMR include: (1) the misuse and overuse of antimicrobials; (2) lack of access to clean water and adequate sanitation for people and animals; (3) poor infection prevention and control measures in healthcare facilities and farms; (4) limited access to quality, affordable medicines, vaccines, and diagnostics; and (5) lack of awareness and knowledge about AMR. Additionally, for countries to progress from planning to acting, AMR coordination committees must have a clearly defined role and the remit to develop and implement an operational plan. Operational plans should embed NAP activities into the national development agenda, sectoral strategies, and budgets, and should coordinate an aligned approach to delivering NAP activities across sectors and stakeholders. Creating and empowering AMR coordination committees and comprehensively implementing and monitoring the prioritized activities outlined in their NAPs operational plan takes time; but there are several relatively easy entry points for AMR action that countries can utilize to accelerate their fight against AMR. The remaining case studies in this series showcase successful actions against AMR that three countries, Burkina Faso, Jordan, and Malawi, have taken along their journey to fully operationalizing and implementing their NAPs on AMR.Publication Purchasing Pharmaceuticals(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2004-09)The overall aim of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of Resource Allocation and Purchasing (RAP) arrangements as regards pharmaceuticals in developing countries. The specific objective of this paper is to examine the strategic questions that arise, when pursuing an active purchasing and resource allocation strategy for drugs, as well as the actual practice and experience from applying different RAP strategies to promote access of the poor to essential drugs, i.e. availability of affordable essential drugs of good quality and appropriate and efficient use of drugs.
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