Antimicrobials are used to prevent and treat infections in humans, animals, and plants.
Self-medication generates resistance of microbes to antibiotics and causes some 700,000 deaths a year in the world, the Ministry of Health of Peru (Minsa) warned this Tuesday, indicating that the country launched a national plan to face this problem.
According to the information, which cited figures from the World Health Organization (WHO), antimicrobial resistance (AMR) “represents a growing threat to global, regional and national public health due to its impact on morbidity, mortality and economic cost ”.
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In that sense, he remarked that “if strong measures are not taken,” it is estimated that by 2050, deaths caused by resistance to antibiotics will become the leading cause of death in the world, reaching ten million people a year.
Antimicrobials are used to prevent and treat infections in humans, animals and plants, “but their effect can be reduced if they are used improperly and excessively,” he added.
“This is how this problem not only involves human health, it also includes animal health, food, agriculture, livestock and the environment in general,” he remarked.
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The Ministry of Health said that due to the impact of AMR on global health and the economies of the countries, various economies have been implementing their national action plans to confront it and Peru “has joined this global effort.”
In this sense, it has installed a multisectoral commission that has launched the “National Plan to face antimicrobial resistance,” a document that aims to articulate and integrate a response to the increase in this threat.
The Ministry pointed out that, through the multisectoral commission, it is coordinating a series of activities within the framework of the “Global Week of Awareness on the Use of Antimicrobials”, which is held from November 18 to 24 of each year.
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The activities will be oriented to sensitize the population regarding AMR to avoid the inappropriate use of medicines and its repercussions on human, animal and environmental health.
Among the activities there will be a virtual conference by Dr. Marcelo Galas, a PAHO / WHO specialist in Washington, and a virtual workshop will also be held for community health agents, related to the “rational use of antibiotics”. (I)
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