WHO - 154th Session of the Executive Board Item 13 – Antimicrobial resistance: accelerating national and global responses - EU Statement
WHO
154th Session of the Executive Board
Item 13 – Antimicrobial resistance: accelerating national and global responses
EU Statement
Chair, Director-General, Excellencies, Colleagues,
This statement is made on behalf of the EU and its member states.
The candidate countries Türkiye, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania, Ukraine, Republic of Moldova[1] and Georgia as well as the EFTA country Norway, member of the European Economic Area, align themselves with this statement.
We welcome this agenda point, the resolution and the report by the Director General on strengthening and accelerating the national and global response to the silent pandemic of AMR.
In 2019 AMR was directly responsible for about 1.27 million deaths worldwide.
Significant progress has been made in addressing AMR. However, it still remains a major global health threat. Strong action and ambitious policies are needed, within the One Health approach, especially when implementing national action plans. In addition, we insist on the adequate funding of these plans.
The community, hospitals and long-term healthcare facilities need to implement prudent and responsible use of antimicrobials and high standards of infection prevention and control. This is essential to reduce the risk of emergence, re-emergence and spreading of AMR. We appreciate WHO’s evidence-based guidance in this regard. Tackling AMR requires the availability of and access to safe and effective healthcare products for curative, preventive and diagnostic purposes.
We welcome the three new strategic and operational priorities and we encourage support for Research and Development, regarding new antimicrobials as well as other medical technologies.
Setting measurable targets, especially reduction targets for antimicrobial consumption, are effective tools to foster prevention and to achieve the objectives. We welcome the development of an accountability framework with specific targets in consultation with all relevant stakeholders to secure high ambitions.
We need to strengthen the international cooperation – especially in regard to building up implementation capacities.
AMR affects countries in all regions. However, low- and middle-income countries are the most affected. We must support and further develop the cooperation to deliver context specific solutions in this regard.
We appreciate the WHO focus on the people-centred approach and the clear strategy for the human health sector.
Nevertheless, we strongly advocate to continue strong collaboration with the Quadripartite, to expand the work on AMR to all sectors and disciplines.
Chair, we want to take this opportunity to thank the leadership team for AMR: Hanan Balkhy, Kitty van den Weezenbeek and Haileyesus Getahun. For their dedication, firmly establishing AMR on the agenda for Global Health.
Their work should be continued as a priority for an ADG working on improving health systems. We hope to be informed about their successors in due course.
We look forward to engaging in the work on implementing the resolution and in the preparations for the upcoming UN High Level Meeting on AMR this fall.
Thank you chair.
[1] North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Albania continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.