Dear Colleague,
Around the time this emails hits your inbox, we will have just finished meeting with key international stakeholders in Annecy, France to i) discuss how to spur global actors to prevent and contain drug resistance in the developing world and ii) obtain specific commitments to move forward on combating drug resistance.
Here are a few of the great promises made at our meeting:
- The Merieux Foundation committed to adding drug resistance to its disease surveillance operations in West Africa and other Francophone countries, to building lab capacity to do drug resistance testing, to training lab workers on resistance, and to convening an annual conference on global drug resistance.
- The Secretariat of the Global Fund committed to continue working with Partners at facilitating the enhancement of Pharmacovigilance systems in countries, and more globally, to work at exploring how drug regulatory capacity can be enhanced. The Secretariat is also exploring how it can strengthen drug resistance surveillance in countries.
- The Inter-American Development Bank agreed to develop operational research to test P4P on drug supply chain interventions and to support drug resistance costing studies as well as to work with PAHO and other regional partners (such as COMISCA, CDC) to expand drug resistance surveillance and lab capacity strengthening.
- The European Commission committed to consider expanding its work on drug resistance beyond Europe into developing countries, using the newly-created EU-US Task Force on Antimicrobial Resistance
Now we’ll all have to keep up the pressure to make these promises become reality. We hope that, in your own capacities and affiliations, you might also consider making a commitment. In our next newsletter, we will share with you the DRWG report and how we hope global organizations will advance the drug resistance agenda.
For those of you who will be in the DC area on June 15, we welcome you to attend the final report launch, at the National Press Club from 9:00-10:45 am (register here). Following opening remarks by Congressman Jim Matheson (D-Utah), the launch will feature a distinguished panel of experts and the short film, “The Race Against Drug Resistance” by Back to Earth Films. For those of you who are unable to be with us, both the final report and the film will be live on our site on June 15.
I also encourage you to join a new initiative by the International Society of Chemistry's Antimicrobial Stewardship Working Group described in this month's guest column below.
Lastly, the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee held a hearing in late April on “Antibiotic Resistance and the Threat to Public Health.” Testifying were high-level U.S. Government officials Anthony Fauci, NIH and Thomas Frieden, CDC. For more information, you can read the testimonies or watch video of the session or visit my blog.
As always, we welcome your thoughts at [email protected].
Regards,
Rachel Nugent
Deputy Director for Global Health
Center for Global Development
GUEST COLUMN
An invitation from the International Society of Chemotherapy Working Group to join a new adventure tackling drug resistance globally
By Gabriel Levy Hara (Chair), Jim Hutchinson (Chair) and Ian Gould (Honorary Secretary), ISC Antimicrobial Stewardship Working Group
Sometimes problems are so large and so complex that it is hard to conceive a good starting point to address them. Antimicrobial resistance certainly fits this description. Despite innumerable examples of current disaster, it is difficult for even award winning journalists to describe them, as lamented Margie Mason and Martha Mendoza in a recent edition of this column. Despite this, there are thousands of efforts to improve antimicrobial use being made all over the planet and thousands more efforts that would be made if given the opportunity. These people need a place to describe their efforts, be recognized for them and find support to continue and expand them.
Continue Reading
LATEST DRUG RESISTANCE RESEARCH
IN THE NEWS
Bacteria (Besides TB)
TB
Malaria
Other
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PARTNER RESOURCES
- See the May 18 Lancet series on tuberculosis (login required), including the increasing problems of MDR- and XDR-TB and a Sciencespeaks interview with one of the co-authors
- View two recent European Commission reports: 1) a pan-European survey revealing worrying trends in public attitudes towards antibiotic use, and 2) a progress report on the 2002 Council Recommendation on the prudent use of antibiotics
- Peruse Nature magazine’s April edition which focused on counterfeits (login required)
RECENT/UPCOMING EVENTS
- View presentations from a seminar on Drug Resistance: A Global Challenge to Disease Control and Eradication held at Resources for the Future, featuring Rachel Nugent and Drug Resistance Working Group member Kevin Outterson.
- View the preliminary program and learn more about the upcoming (June 8-12 in Dubrovnik) International HIV & Hepatitis Virus Drug Resistance Workshop and Curative Strategies
Call for papers
- Download a preliminary announcement for the Third International Conference on Improving Use of Medicines (10 – 14 April 2011 in Alexandria, Egypt)
WORKING GROUP UPDATE
- If you are attending the Global Health Council in June, please come to our panel on Wednesday, June 16 at 2:00 pm on Global Leadership: Who is Fighting Drug Resistance and How?, featuring DRWG members Walter Straus and Gail Cassell and other experts. View session description and speakers (scroll down to session D5)
VIDEO
- View brief CNN overview of findings from recent United States Department of Agriculture audit report which reveals lax standards in beef processing resulting in contamination by pesticides, antibiotics and heavy metals. Read more, on the Huffington Post website
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