Global awareness needed to stop AMR
Dr. Issmat Kassem presents his findings on antimicrobial resistance at the Global Conference on Foodborne Antimicrobial Resistance.
By Jennifer Reynolds
Communication Professional for the Center for Food Safety
The pathogens that make us ill such as bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites evolve over time and can become less responsive to the medications used to treat them. This is known as antimicrobial resistance (AMR). AMR is a growing public health problem and has been declared one of the top 10 threats facing humanity by the World Health Organization. The WHO has declared Nov 18-24 as World Antimicrobial Awareness Week to help people learn about the risks of AMR.
One UGA researcher, Issmat Kassem, is working to help stop the spread of antimicrobial resistance, and because AMR spreads across borders just like illnesses do, his work has taken him around the globe. He has studied the spread of AMR in several countries around the planet, from Africa to America.
Most recently, he was the keynote speaker at this year's Global Conference on Foodborne Antimicrobial Resistance. Organized by the Republic of Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, the event focused on the significance of global cooperation in reducing foodborne antimicrobial resistance. Kassem was recommended to be the keynote speaker by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
“If we don’t seriously tackle it right now, we are jeopardizing medicine as we know it and that can have huge repercussions on global health and the economy,” Kassem said. “It’s a dangerous problem that requires attention from multiple stakeholders for us to be able to tackle it properly.”
One way that AMR spreads is through the food chain. Travelers, waterways, and animal movements are also means of spreading AMR. Because AMR is not limited by national boundaries, it is a global problem that must be addressed by policymakers worldwide.
“There are no countries that are not affected by antimicrobial resistance. Even in the Arctic, it is believed that humans or birds might have transferred antimicrobial resistance genes there that were first detected in India,” Kassem said. “Tackling AMR now before it becomes an unsolvable problem is crucial.”