Statement by the Regional Director at the World Antimicrobial Resistance Awareness Week 2023 …
15 November 2023 – Over the last 50 years, health systems in the Eastern Mediterranean Region have been transformed, leading to improved health outcomes. Among other factors, the ability to prevent and treat infection successfully and cost-effectively has made an immense contribution to this progress. Child deaths have more than halved-from an under 5 death rate of 99 deaths per 1000 in 1990 to 45 per 1000 in 2021. Strong health systems effectively reduce the spread of communicable diseases and work towards their elimination. Surgery and cancer treatment now can be carried out safely with effective antibiotics to manage the risk of infection.
But today, it comes to us as a shock that all these gains are at risk if medicines are no longer effective against the micro-organisms that cause infections. Antimicrobial resistance is not a future threat – it is already taking its toll on health. When we cannot manage the risk of infection, more people die, more people experience chronic infection and suffering, and the costs of health care rise.
Antimicrobial resistance is often referred to as a silent tsunami. It is rarely directly recorded as a cause of death, but we now have reliable estimates on the burden we face. The global burden of disease estimates that in the Eastern Mediterranean Region, in 2019, among sepsis deaths, 431 000 were associated with antibiotic resistance, with 115 000 directly attributable to bacterial resistance.
Data collected via the WHO Global Antimicrobial Resistance and Use Surveillance System (GLASS) show that resistance levels across