UNEP calls to reduce pollution to combat ‘superbugs’ anti-microbial resistance

Anjali Sharma  

GG News Bureau

UNITED NATIONS, 8th Feb. UN Environment Programme on Tuesday said in a report launched in Bridgetown, Barbados that up to 10 million people could die annually by 2050 due to anti-microbial resistance.

It highlighted the need to curtail pollution created by the pharmaceuticals, agricultural and healthcare sectors.

The study focused on the environmental dimensions of AMR, which occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites change over time and no longer respond to medicines.

It called to reduce the emergence, transmission and spread of “superbugs” – strains of bacteria that have become resistant to every known biotic – and other instances of AMR, which are taking a serious toll on human, animal, and plant health.

Prime Minister Mia Mottley of Barbados,chairs a UN-backed initiative of world leaders and experts examining the issue that “The environmental crisis of our time is one of human rights and geopolitics the antimicrobial resistance report published by UNEP today is yet another example of inequity, in that the AMR crisis is disproportionately affecting countries in the Global South.”

 AMR is the top 10 global threats to health, according to the World Health Organization.

In 2019, an estimated 1.27 million deaths globally were directly attributed to drug-resistant infections.  Overall, nearly five million deaths were associated with bacterial AMR.

Some 10 million additional direct deaths annually by 2050 will occur, which is equal to the number of deaths caused globally by cancer in 2020.

AMR affects the economy and is expected to cause a drop in Gross Domestic Product of $3.4 trillion annually by the end of the decade, pushing some 24 million people into extreme poverty.

The pharmaceutical, agricultural and healthcare sectors are key drivers of AMR development and spread in the environment, together with pollutants from poor sanitation, sewage and municipal waste systems.

Inger Andersen, the UNEP Executive Director, explained that the triple planetary crisis – climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss – have contributed to this.

“Pollution of air, soil, and waterways undermines the human right to a clean and healthy environment. The same drivers that cause environment degradation are worsening the antimicrobial resistance problem. The impacts of anti-microbial resistance could destroy our health and food systems,” she warned.

UNEP said that tackling AMR requires a multisectoral response that recognizes that the health of people, animals, plants and the environment are closely linked and interdependent.

The report was launched at the Sixth Meeting of the Global Leaders Group on AMR, chaired by Prime Minister Mottley.

It contains measures to address both the decline of the natural environment and the rise of AMR, with focus on addressing key pollution sources from poor sanitation, sewage, and community and municipal wastes.

Recommendations include creating robust governance, planning, regulatory and legal frameworks at the national level, and increasing global efforts to improve integrated water management.

Other measures suggested are establishing international standards for what constitutes a good microbiological indicator of AMR from environmental samples, and exploring options to redirect investments to guarantee sustainable funding.

It emphasized that the team is not a judicial body and lacks the authority to assign individual criminal responsibility he said its mandate is rather to establish the facts and identify the perpetrators.

“The report is now in your hands,” he told the Security Council.

He added that it will be up to the UN and the international community to take further steps or actions deemed necessary.