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Pfizer’s position is that governments and the public health community must work together with industry to take further action and support measures that will enable continued innovation in the development of new antibiotics and vaccines to help curb the spread of AMR.

By 2050, the UN estimates that up to 10 million deaths could be caused by superbugs and associated forms of antimicrobial resistance, matching the annual global death toll of cancer. Antimicrobial Resistance is a silent threat, but it is already here and needs urgent attention.

If AMR continues to rise unchecked, formerly minor infections could become life-threatening, serious infections could become superbugs that are impossible to treat, and many routine medical procedures could become too risky to perform.

The Medical Director West Africa Pfizer, Dr. Kodjo Soroh, commented “Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites change over time and no longer respond to medicines making infections harder to treat and increasing the risk of disease spread, severe illness and death.

He said, Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) is one of the biggest threats to global health today and can affect anyone, of any age, in any country.

If it continues to rise unchecked, minor infections could become life- threatening, serious infections could become impossible to treat, and many routine medical procedures could become too risky to perform.

According to him, without action by governments, industry, and society, AMR is expected to cause 10 million deaths each year by 2050.

Dr. Yaw Ampem Amoako a Senior Lecturer at the School of Medicine and Dentistry of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Consultant Infectious Diseases Physician and Research Scientist at Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research in Tropical Medicine (KCCR) said Antimicrobial stewardship programmes optimize the use of antimicrobials, improve patient outcomes, reduce AMR and health-care-associated infections, and save health-care costs amongst others.

With rates of AMR increasing worldwide, and very few new antibiotics being developed, existing antibiotics are becoming a limited resource. It is therefore essential that antibiotics only be prescribed – and that last-resort antibiotics (AWaRe RESERVE group) be reserved– for patients who truly need them. Hence, AMS and its defined set of actions for optimizing antibiotic use are of paramount importance.