ADDRESSING GAPS
Come next year the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) will be incorporating new technologies in their efforts to expand the scope of testing for antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in a more efficient and cost-effective manner.
That’s according to Executive Director of Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), Dr. Joy St. John. She spoke to this during a virtual event dubbed ‘Importance of Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance in the Caribbean’ hosted by CARPHA and the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) to mark World Antimicrobial Awareness Week, explaining that the new technologies came about following a study conducted on AMR during 2017 and 2018 by CARPHA’s medical biology laboratory.
Her comments came as she said that the region has been addressing AMR surveillance as part of its integrated food-borne disease surveillance programme and other programmes. She indicated that to date, CARPHA and PAHO have held multiple joint collaborations on integrated food-borne disease surveillance in AMR for member states and countries have been able to build capacity to address gaps in laboratory and surveillance systems.
“Governments and the CARICOM Secretariat are working with international, regional and national agencies to build bridges through collaborations between professionals from public health, laboratory, medicine, pharmacology, veterinary medicine, the policy field and agricultural profession. Countries are addressing gaps in their laboratory capacity and surveillance systems to incorporate AMR genotyping and sequencing. Countries are developing plans of action for treatments to comprehensively address drug resistance in HIV, vector-borne diseases and food-borne disease bacteria,” she added.
With that in mind, Dr. St. John said the region should be proud of its journey and embrace future initiatives to incorporate integrated surveillance models into regional and national plans of health. She made the point while contending that further research is required to address the Caribbean solution to the “complex public health concerns” that AMR presents.
“We must be strategic, innovative and supportive of our regional researchers and projects which seek to address AMR,” Dr. St. John added.
She made the point while noting that overuse of medicines in humans, livestock and agriculture and access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene have all accelerated the threat of AMR worldwide. Noting that AMR is a “global public health challenge and a growing, pervasive, silent cause of increasing mortality and morbidity in the Caribbean”, the CARPHA head explained that continued overuse and abuse of antimicrobials in animal feed and water is not just a problem for animals, but the “negative fallout” for humans is even greater.
“Food-borne diseases affect the immunocompromised and children under five years of age more so than any other age groups, and antibiotics made ineffective by antimicrobial resistance, plus lengthy hospitalisations... The only way to effectively tackle this growing challenge is the one-health way, through a multi-stakeholder collaborative integrated attack,” she added. (JRT)