UN adopts declaration on antimicrobial resistance

World leaders have approved a wide-ranging declaration aimed at addressing the rising number of drug-resistant infections something the World Health Organization says has the potential to kill millions and undermine the global economy, likening it to "a slow-motion tsunami."

The declaration approved Wednesday recognizes the size of the problem and encourages countries to develop plans to cut back on antibiotic use, make better use of vaccines and fund development of new drugs to combat Antimicrobial resistance (AMR), which currently claims the lives of an estimated 700,000 people each year and is expected to rise sharply.

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"This is already an historical moment for countries of the world. Heads of states and heads of governments agreed to address a neglected issue," WHO Director General Marget Chan said."AMR isnot a new issue, but it is a multidimensional issue, it has to beaddressed at the national level ... because no single sector, be itthe agriculture sector, the health sector or trade sector can act onits own."

A 2014 report commissioned by the United Kingdom projected thatby 2050 drug resistance will kill more people each year than cancerand cost the world as much as $100 trillion USin lost economic output.

The World Bank estimates that drug-resistant infections have thepotential to cause at least as much economic damage as the 2008financial crisis.

Drug resistance is driven by the widespread use of antibiotics incommercial agriculture, as a way to prevent costly infections amonglivestock, and misuse and overuse of antibiotics by doctors whooften prescribe them to patients seeking some kind of relief forcolds and flu even though they do not work for viral illnesses.

Meanwhile, pharmaceutical companies don't want to spend the moneyneeded to develop new antibiotics because patients don't need themfor very long, so they don't buy many, and the new drugs are onlyused when the older, cheaper ones don't work.

Speaking at the adoption of the declaration, U.N.Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the dimensions of the problem were rapidly becoming apparent.

"Antimicrobial resistance poses a fundamental, long-term threatto human health, sustainable food production and development," Bansaid. "In all parts of the world, in developing and developedcountries; in rural and urban areas; in hospitals; on farms and incommunities. We are losing our ability to protect both people andanimals from life-threatening infections."

Ban cited several examples including an epidemic ofmultidrug-resistant typhoid now sweeping parts of Africa, risingresistance to HIV/AIDS drugs and extensively drug-resistanttuberculosis that has been identified in 105 countries.

Some critics say the declaration falls short because it lacksfirm commitments to getting antibiotics out of agriculture and forfunding new drugs.

The medical-humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders, known byits French initials MSF, praised the adoption of declaration eventhough it is legally non-binding.

"MSF welcomes the U.N.'s Political Declaration on AntimicrobialResistance, which recognizes the need to address at the highestpolitical levels the complex issue of drug-resistant infections,"MSF President Dr. Joanne Liu said in a statement. "Now, governmentshave the responsibility to turn these words into action."