2019-10-25
Effective antibiotics remain the cornerstone of modern-day medicine. Organ transplants, surgical prophylaxis, saving newborns from sepsis, warding off infections during cancer chemotherapy — these successes depend on ensuring that these life-saving drugs continue working. An estimated 700,000 die each year from drug-resistant infections. If antimicrobial remains unchecked, the human toll will rise. It is a high-stakes game of Jenga: if antibiotics fail, we will assuredly fall short of attaining SDG 3.
Earlier this week, Professor Anthony So, Director of ReAct Strategic Policy Program and Prateek Sharma, Research Associate at the same, published an article in the SDG Knowledge HUB on why it is important with indicators for antimicrobial resistance within the Sustainable Development Goals.

In retrospect, it seems hardly possible that the Millennium Development Goals failed to mention tobacco control, but the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control helped ensure a much needed course correction. Today the same might be said of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), a challenge so great that it became only the fourth time that the UN General Assembly considered a global health issue. In the 2016 UN Political Declaration of the High-Level Meeting of the General Assembly on antimicrobial resistance, Member States affirmed that:
“antimicrobial resistance challenges the sustainability and effectiveness of the public health response to these and other diseases as well as gains in health and development and the attainment of the 2030 Agenda.”
Yet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) do not have a single indicator specific to antimicrobial resistance.
Indicators specific to AMR within the Sustainable Development Goals
- Without progress on antimicrobial resistance, attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals would fall short. Yet the indicators to track the Sustainable Development Goals have thus far failed to include tracking of antimicrobial resistance.
- During the 2020 Comprehensive Review, the proposal of an AMR-specific indicator to track two priority drug-resistant pathogens in the SDGs takes an important step to close this gap.
- Tracking access, but not excess use of antimicrobials is also critical.
Read full article on SDG Knowledge HUB website
Tracking antimicrobial resistance in the Sustainable Development Goals on SDG Knowledge HUB website.
More news and opinion from 2019
- ReAct’s 2019 wrap up and 2020 expectations
- Blog post by UNDP and ReAct: Antimicrobial resistance: An emerging crisis
- Water, sanitation and hygiene services critical to curbing antibiotic quick fix
- Diagnostics: Antibiotic susceptibility
- ReAct highlights during World Antibiotic Awareness week 2019
- 2019 AMR photo competition prizes announced
- Launch of UNICEF’s institutional guidance on antimicrobial resistance
- Proposed ban on colistin for animal use announced in Indonesia
- School children led celebration of World Toilet Day and World Antibiotic Awareness Week
- 10 Innovate4AMR-winning teams enjoyed 3-day workshop in Geneva
- After 4 collaborative meeting days: Actions for the future in Latin America
- Four key points from joint comments to One Health Global Leaders Group on AMR
- Why are children more vulnerable to AMR?
- Dr Yoel Lubell, Health Economist, on Thailand, AMR, UCH and cultural factors driving AMR
- UHC and AMR: The Thai Experience
- Why do effective antibiotics matter for quality of care and patient safety?
- New ReAct policy brief: Antimicrobial resistance and universal health coverage – What’s the deal?
- Three key takeaways from the ReAct Africa conference
- Diagnostics: Species identification
- AMR-specific indicator proposed for monitoring Sustainable Development Goals
- Five focus areas at the 2nd Ministerial Conference on AMR hosted by the Netherlands
- Safety concerns of fecal microbiota transplants
- Upcoming ReAct Africa Conference: universal health coverage and antimicrobial resistance in focus
- Mother Earth conference in Argentina – the environment in focus
- Diagnostics: What are we talking about?
- Connecting global to local civil-society-agenda on AMR at CSO convening in Geneva
- ReAct colleagues featured in WHO Bulletin as leading profiles in the work on reacting to antibiotic resistance
- RAN stakeholder at WHO IPC consultation – for standards and guidelines in African Union member states
- WHA conversation on Antibiotic Resistance as a Global Development Problem co-organized by ReAct
- Insights from ReAct Asia Pacific project on antibiotic stewardship in secondary level hospitals in India
- Open letter to UN Member States from former IACG members Anthony So and Otto Cars
- ReAct UHC Intervention at UNGA Multi-stakeholder Hearing for High-level Meeting on UHC
- ReAct Latin America honors Earth Day
- Medicines Patent Pool’s view on the role of licenses for antibiotics – World Intellectual Property Day
- Second time for Innovate4AMR competition!
- World Health Day 2019: Universal Health Coverage
- Diagnostics: Constraints for successful implementation
- Antibiotic Shortages: magnitude, causes and possible solutions: A new WHO meeting report
- Erry Setyawan, FAO, on Indonesian NAP: We need to work together to make it possible to manage AMR
- ReAct’s new 5-year strategic plan receives funding from Sida
- How infections spread and how to stop them
- Generating data for policy and practice