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Two Global Health Crises: Is Climate Change contributing to Antimicrobial Resistance?

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Global temperatures have increased by about 1ºC in the past century and are continuing to rise. Currently, countries around the world are working towards the targets set out in the Paris Agreement to keep the global temperature rise below 2ºC. The aim is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as fast as possible. Rising levels of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide causes high temperatures. These gases act as warming blankets around the Earth, trapping the sun’s energy causing the Earth to warm at a faster rate. Increases in greenhouse gases is almost entirely due to human activity like deforestation which reduces the number of trees absorbing carbon dioxide. It is the rise in earth’s surface temperature causes climate change. Antimicrobial Resistance(AMR) is a growing public health concern. It occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites change over time and no longer respond to drugs designed to kill them, making infections harder to treat and medical procedures much riskier. Anti...
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Antimicrobial Use and Hygiene Practices During the COVID-19 Pandemic Could Be Driving AMR

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From scratching the surface, it would appear as if COVID-19 and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) are linked in one fundamental way, the fact that both are severe global health crises with massive socioeconomic implications. This is testament to worldwide imposition of lockdowns and restrictions as governments try to curb COVID-19 infection rates and the ever increasing COVID-19 related mortalities, with economic recession and erosion of social discourse in many nations being the side effects. In the same vein, AMR is among the thirteen urgent global health threats pointed-out by WHO (1) . Estimates suggest that if AMR is not addressed now, by 2050 it would cause ten million deaths yearly and the world’s GDP would plummet by 2 to 3.5% amounting to a loss of 100 trillion USD (2) . To make the matters worse, more evidence is being gathered which suggests that the rabbit hole runs deeper than meets the eye with COVID-19 and AMR being interconnected in various, complex ways.    ...
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Miserly Cuts to the Foreign Aid Budget Will Promote the Spread of Antimicrobial Resistance

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  If a viral infection can change society as radically as it has in 2020, you would assume protecting the country against future health crises would be a priority for any government. However, the recent 30% cuts to the foreign aid budget show that this government does not have its priorities in order regarding one of the greatest health crises of this century: antimicrobial resistance (AMR).  AMR refers to microbes (viruses, fungi, parasites and bacteria) becoming resistant to the antimicrobial medicines designed to treat them, making infections much harder or impossible to treat. The trouble is that modern society depends on antimicrobials for much that we take for granted including disease treatment, surgeries and farming. If our medicines cease to be effective, routine practices become less safe. This will lead to people dying from small wounds, exposes us to food-borne infections and makes it harder to treat secondary infections – which contribute to many COVID-19 deaths. ...
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Location: Manchester, UK
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