PNG to Combat Antimicrobial Resistance

Papua New Guinea will be the 10th country in the world to submit the National Antimicrobial Resistance Action Plan 2017-2020 to the World Health Assembly by May this year.

The World Health Organization together with the Department of Health and other stakeholders gathered at the Lamana Hotel this morning to finalise the plan in a two days workshop.
Antimicrobial Resistance or AMR are bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics and a good example of such bacteria is the Multi Drug Resistant TB which already exists in PNG.
According to Dr Sarah Paulin of WHO, there have been 25,000 deaths across Europe and all the deaths were related to ARM.

“According to a recent survey, we can expect 10 million deaths as result of ARM in 2050 so something must be done to combat ARM” said Dr Paulin.
Dr Paulin also revealed that some diseases are already falling into the ARM Category, like Gonorrhoea which has been reported be resistant to antibiotics in China.
Meanwhile the workshop will continue on tomorrow and the participants are hoping to finalise the National Antimicrobial Resistance Action Plan 2017-2020 before the month of May. PNGFM/PNG Today : Image by  WHO.