Antimicrobial stewardship on the global scale: Challenges and opportunities

Antimicrobial stewardship (AMS), a challenging concept, not always clear for many stakeholders, is the focus of a recent  open-access peer-reviewed publication. The paper was authored by a multi disciplinary team of FAO colleagues and published in a special issue of the scientific journal, Microorganisms, by MDPI.

With it, the reader can get acquainted with several of the work streams and initiatives that FAO is involved in, including: awareness raising, behaviour change, governance (at the global and local levels), good practices, implementation of AMR-related Codex standards and surveillance. In addition to diagnostic instruments such as the Assessment Tool for Laboratories and AMR Surveillance Systems (FAO-ATLASS), the article covers two upcoming collaborative initiatives:

• the International FAO Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring IT platform, called InFARM, which initially will host AMR data about priority bacterial species of interest for human and animal health as well as indicator bacteria from animals and food and will later be expanded to additional functionalities;
• the AMR Partnership Platform, which is a multistakeholder forum that four international organizations – FAO, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), World Health Organization (WHO) and World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) – are putting together to foster a One Health approach for AMR across sectors and borders.   

Access the paper here

Read about FAO’s work on antimicrobial resistance

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Photo: © FAO/Luis Tato