• Scholars call for Paris Accord-style glo

    From ScienceDaily@1:317/3 to All on Thu Mar 24 22:30:44 2022
    Scholars call for Paris Accord-style global agreement to combat
    emergence of 'superbugs'
    New paper says the world urgently needs a co-ordinated response to antimicrobial resistance

    Date:
    March 24, 2022
    Source:
    York University
    Summary:
    Public health experts have long been concerned by the emergence
    of so- called 'superbugs' -- existing bacterial, viral, or fungal
    pathogens that have evolved to evade the antibiotics, antivirals
    and antifungals developed to kill them. The scope and severity
    of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and the urgent need for a
    co-ordinated global response are the subjects of a new paper,
    co-authored by 25 scholars.



    FULL STORY ==========================================================================
    In December 2021, as the world prepared to enter the third year of the
    COVID-19 pandemic, 194 member countries at the World Health Organization unanimously agreed to pursue a global agreement governing future
    worldwide responses to infectious diseases. The goal is to prevent the
    next pandemic, or at a minimum, to effectively contain it with minimal
    cost to human lives and national economies.


    ========================================================================== COVID-19, like the 1918 influenza and 2009 H1N1 pandemics, was caused by a
    new virus. But public health experts, including those at York University,
    have long been concerned by the emergence of so-called "superbugs,"
    existing bacterial, viral, or fungal pathogens that have evolved to
    evade the antibiotics, antivirals and antifungals developed to kill them.

    The scope and severity of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and the urgent
    need for a co-ordinated global response are the subjects of a new paper, co-authored by 25 scholars -- from York and Oxford, among several others
    -- and published today in the American Journal of Public Health.Titled "Governing Global Antimicrobial Resistance: 6 Key Lessons From the Paris Climate Agreement," the paper emerged out of a collaboration between York
    and Oxford University, including consensus workshops held in May 2019
    at the Oxford Martin School in the U.K. The authors argue that the six
    lessons from the Paris Accord should form the basis of any multi-country agreement or action plan on AMR.

    A recent paper published in The Lancet provides new evidence that
    the global scale of superbugs that emerge is already much higher than previously estimated, killing an estimated 1.27 million people each year.

    "Every single use of an antimicrobial treatment -- every time an
    antimicrobial is prescribed by a doctor or administered en masse to
    livestock -- increases the chance that microbes will develop permanent, irreversible resistance to the medicines that we use to stop their
    spread," says the study's lead author, Isaac Weldon, a CIHR-funded
    PhD candidate in political science at York's Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies.

    "As we say in the paper, every single antibiotic treatment or
    antimicrobial consumed has potentially global implications. Resistant
    microbial pathogens that spread throughout the world would
    essentially cause untreatable pandemic diseases. And that would require non-pharmaceutical inventions like lockdowns, masking, contact tracing
    and isolation to contain them -- everything we just went through for
    the past two years." Here are the six elements of the Paris Climate
    Agreement that Weldon and his co-authors argue should be applied to the
    global governance of AMR:
    1. A collective global goal to mobilize political attention and
    benchmark
    global progress. For the Paris Agreement, the world united behind
    the goal of keeping global average temperatures below 1.5 C above
    preindustrial levels. A similar benchmark is needed for AMR,
    the study's authors argue.

    2. A focus on social and economic transformation. Offloading
    responsibility
    from governments to individuals is insufficient, the authors
    write; instead, policies should acknowledge that antimicrobials
    have effectively become invisible infrastructure underpinning our
    health, food and labour systems.

    3. National AMR action plans that are regularly reviewed and
    expanded. As
    with the Paris Agreement, the authors suggest, countries should
    be legally required to specify their AMR goals, regularly monitor
    progress, and increase their commitments at regular intervals.

    4. An annual forum involving multiple stakeholders.The annual
    Conference of
    the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
    Change could be a model for an equivalent forum for countries and
    NGOs to discuss AMR.

    5. Regular and recurring re-evaluation of the best available
    science. The
    authors call for the creation of an analogue to the
    Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which regularly revisits
    and re-evaluates existing measures and advises on evidence-informed
    adjustments.

    6. An international legal framework. Treaties are rare in global
    health,
    according to the authors, but the transnational nature of the AMR
    crisis means a robust, binding international legal framework is
    required to hold all actors accountable.



    ========================================================================== "Binding rules imposed on all countries are necessary because any single country's effort to control AMR is doomed to fail without the co-ordinated effort of the world," Weldon says. "Even if Canada were to impose the
    perfect AMR regime, all it would take to undermine it is one passenger
    arriving on one airline flight with a resistant pathogen from another
    country without such a regime.

    "So, in the absence of universal standards and accountability, a single
    country like Canada would be imposing a cost on itself by going it alone
    on AMR. It would make its economy less competitive; it would make things
    harder for doctors, farmers, and corporations that have come to rely on antimicrobials with little guarantee of success. It's almost a non-starter
    -- why would Canada impose these costs and constrain itself against other countries who aren't taking the initiative to address AMR? But with a coordinated global effort, the opportunity to create healthier societies,
    save countless lives, and preserve the effectiveness of antimicrobials
    for future generations makes the equation a no-brainer. Global cooperation
    here is the key." The AMR study emerged from consensus workshops convened
    by the Global Strategy Lab, an interdisciplinary research lab based at
    York and Ottawa U, and the world's only WHO-affiliated Collaborating
    Centre on Global Governance of Antimicrobial Resistance.

    "This publication showcases the exciting work happening at York on
    the global health policy measures needed to achieve the Sustainable
    Development Goals (SDGs). In this case, through an active research
    partnership with the University of Oxford," says the Global Strategy
    Lab's director, Steven J.

    Hoffman, a professor of Global Health, Law, and Political Science at
    York's Faculty of Health and Osgoode Hall Law School and the Dahdaleh Distinguished Chair in Global Governance & Legal Epidemiology.

    "A lot of times, research is about identifying problems, but this study
    was about solutions. What specific steps must countries take collectively
    to ensure more equitable access to antimicrobials, conservation of
    current effective antimicrobials, and innovation in the development of
    new antimicrobial treatments? The fact that the paper is short, running
    to only five pages, testifies to the remarkable degree of consensus that
    the scholars worked hard to achieve during the workshops at Oxford.



    ==========================================================================
    "It also shows what that our doctorial students, like Isaac, the lead
    author, are capable of, the difference they can make. Sometimes we're
    too focused on professors, and we forget about the important research contributions of PhD students." The study was funded by the Wellcome
    Trust, Oxford Martin School, and the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada.

    More about the Global Strategy Lab: The Global Strategy Lab is a
    bi-campus interdisciplinary research lab that brings cutting-edge
    science and scholarship to bear on how global institutions, instruments
    and initiatives are designed to better address the most pressing global challenges. Directed by Dr. Steven J. Hoffman and based at York University
    and the University of Ottawa, the Lab advises the world's governments
    and public health organizations on how to design laws, policies and institutions that address transnational health threats and make the
    world a healthier place for everyone.


    ========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by York_University. Note: Content may
    be edited for style and length.


    ========================================================================== Journal Reference:
    1. Isaac Weldon, Susan Rogers Van Katwyk, Gian Luca Burci, Dr Giur,
    Thana C.

    de Campos, Mark Eccleston-Turner, Helen R. Fryer, Alberto Giubilini,
    Thomas Hale, Mark Harrison, Stephanie Johnson, Claas Kirchhelle,
    Kelley Lee, Kathleen Liddell, Marc Mendelson, Gorik Ooms, James
    Orbinski, Laura J. V. Piddock, John-Arne Ro/ttingen, Julian
    Savulescu, Andrew C.

    Singer, A. M. Viens, Clare Wenham, Mary E. Wiktorowicz,
    Shehla Zaidi, Steven J. Hoffman. Governing Global
    Antimicrobial Resistance: 6 Key Lessons From the Paris Climate
    Agreement. American Journal of Public Health, 2022; 112: 553_557
    DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2021.306695 ==========================================================================

    Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/03/220323160651.htm

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