Barbados, September 11, 2024 (PAHO) - Caribbean stakeholders recently heard from Prime Minister of Barbados, The Hon. Mia Amor Mottley, S.C., M.P., that antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is predicted to cost the world 855 billion US Dollars annually in extra healthcare costs and lost productivity over the next decade.
This disclosure was made during the webinar ‘Antimicrobial Resistance Awareness in the Caribbean: How do we Weather this Storm?’.
Prime Minister Mottley, who is also Chair of the Global Leaders group on antimicrobial resistance, lamented: “The unfortunate reality is that the burden of AMR is disproportionately borne by developing countries, and those, indeed, in fragile settings. Those who already carry much of the world's burden of both communicable and non-communicable diseases, as you know, and who face the greatest impact of the climate crisis, and indeed, food insecurity.”
The Prime Minister stated that despite AMR already being a leading cause of death globally, with almost 5 million AMR-related deaths being recorded each year, “so little attention is being placed on averting this silent crisis, this slow-motion pandemic.”
Education, awareness and behavior change campaigns in schools and professional curricula, were described by Prime Minister Mottley as critical to help mitigate the impacts of AMR.
PAHO was among those presenters reporting on the Caribbean region’s progress with antimicrobial resistance, during the webinar which was a virtual dialogue conceptualized by the Government of Barbados and the University of the West Indies, and supported by the antimicrobial resistance, multi-stakeholder, partnership platform, geared toward highlighting the impact of AMR on the Caribbean and Small Island Developing States (SIDS).
Advisor, Health Surveillance, Disease Prevention and Control, with the PAHO/WHO Office for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean Countries (ECC), Dr. Prabhjot Singh, spoke on the topic ‘PAHO and Caribbean Antimicrobial Surveillance’.
Dr. Singh reiterated PAHO’s commitment to “ensuring that all countries in the region can effectively monitor, prevent, and respond to the threat of AMR, ultimately contributing to improved health outcomes and pandemic preparedness”.
The audience heard from Dr. Singh that the Caribbean faces several challenges as it works to combat AMR. Setting up effective surveillance systems; ensuring timely diagnosis; providing access to quality antimicrobials; addressing barriers to access to diagnostics, vaccines and antimicrobials in SIDS; difficulties with samples/specimens' transportation and the impact on the timeliness of clinical laboratory diagnosis and surveillance; and the urgent need for a robust and coordinated public health response due to the emergence of highly resistant bacteria, such as carbapenem-resistant enterobacterales.
This dire situation is being valiantly tackled, as Dr. Singh highlighted when outlining some achievements. The hosting of the Caribbean Workshop on National Action Plans (NAPs) for AMR, attended by 12 CARICOMS countries, two of whose NAPs for AMR have been approved; the provision of Opendata – data which is accessible to all - through PAHO/WHO websites, which list priority drug-bug combinations on antimicrobial use; in 2024, most CARICOM countries reported to the Quadripartite AMR Country Self-Assessment Survey (TrACSS); hosting of a training of trainers session on environmental cleaning aspects of Infection Prevention and Control capacity (IPC), which was attended by two CARICOM countries; and training on Molecular Detection and Diagnosis of Carbapenemase Genes in Gram Negative Bacteria, which was attended by representatives of six CARICOM countries.
Among the guests at the webinar were The Hon. Indar Weir, Minister of Agriculture and Food and Nutritional Security for Barbados, and Dr. The Hon. Corey Forde, Head of Infection, Prevention and Control Infectious Diseases Program at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Barbados.
