World Antimicrobial Awareness Week (WAAW) aims to increase awareness of global antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and encourage best practices amongst the general public, health workers, and policy makers to avoid further emergence and spread of drug-resistant infections. 

Following a stakeholder's consultation meeting in May 2020, organized by the Tripartite Organizations, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) and the World Health Organization (WHO), the scope of WAAW was expanded; changing its focus from "antibiotics" to the more encompassing and inclusive term "antimicrobials".  The expansion of focus to all antimicrobials will facilitate a more inclusive global response to antimicrobial resistance and support a multisectoral One Health Approach with increased stakeholder engagement. 

A global action plan to tackle the growing problem of resistance to antibiotics and other antimicrobial medicines was endorsed at the Sixty-eighth World Health Assembly in May 2015. One of the key objectives of the plan is to improve awareness and understanding of antimicrobial resistance through effective communication, education, and training. 

SLOGAN "Antimicrobials: handle with care" 
THE THEME for the human health sector is “United to preserve antimicrobials".
DATE: 18 – 24 November 2020

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