The upcoming 47th Union World Conference on Lung Health will focus on the increasingly urgent threat of drug-resistance in treating tuberculosis (TB) and other lung diseases as the United Nations General Assembly declares antimicrobial resistance (AMR) “the greatest and most urgent global risk”.
This is the first time a worldwide commitment of this magnitude has been made to stop the spread of drug-resistance, and only the fourth time the UN has discussed a health issue at the General Assembly.
Both TB and pneumonia see high levels of drug-resistance and certain strains of both are considered ‘superbugs’, or bacteria that have become resistant to antibiotics.
The Executive Director of the World Health Organization (WHO), Margaret Chan, opened the meeting with a call for action. “Antimicrobial resistance poses a fundamental threat to human health, development, and security. The commitments made today must now be translated into swift, effective, lifesaving actions across the human, animal, and environmental health sectors. We are running out of time.”
In 2014, a WHO estimate showed 480,000 people developed multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) and only one-fourth of those people were detected and put on treatment. The large number of undetected and untreated MDR-TB cases causes further challenges in treating and curing patients, and often leads to the patient developing extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB).
World leaders have committed to creating national plans to combat drug-resistance, but in order to make progress innovative solutions and increased action are urgently needed.
This year’s Union World Conference will discuss these subjects and more in Liverpool in October.
Read José Luis Castro’s statement on the United Nations’ historic declaration to tackle AMR.