Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2023 Oct 29:18:100306.
doi: 10.1016/j.lansea.2023.100306. eCollection 2023 Nov.

Response to antimicrobial resistance in South-East Asia Region

Benyamin Sihombing  1 , Rajesh Bhatia  2 , Rahul Srivastava  3 , Tjandra Yoga Aditama  4 , Ramanan Laxminarayan  5 , Suman Rijal  6
Affiliations
Review

Response to antimicrobial resistance in South-East Asia Region

Benyamin Sihombing et al. Lancet Reg Health Southeast Asia. .

Abstract

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) inflicts significant mortality, morbidity and economic loss in the 11 countries in the WHO South-East Asia Region (SEAR). With technical assistance and advocacy from WHO, all countries have developed their respective National Action Plans on AMR that are aligned with the Global Action Plan. Historically, the WHO Regional Office has been proactive in advocacy at the highest political level. The past decade has seen an enhancement of the country's capacity to combat AMR through national efforts catalyzed and supported through several WHO initiatives at all levels-global, regional and country levels. Several countries including Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand have observed a worrying trend of increasing drug resistance, despite heightened awareness and actions. Recent AMR data generated by the countries are indicative of fragmented progress. Lack of technical capacity, financial resources, weak regulatory apparatus, slow behavioural changes at all levels of the antimicrobial stewardship landscape and the COVID-19 pandemic have prevented the effective application of several interventions to minimize the impact of AMR.

Keywords: AMR Global Action Plan; AMR National Action Plan; AMR surveillance; Advocacy; Antimicrobial Stewardship; One Health.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The views expressed in the submitted article are of the authors and not an official position of the institution to which they are affiliated. The authors except RL and SR are affiliated with WHO SEARO. The author declares no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The proportion of indicators with implementation phase 3 or above in each country from 2016 to2021.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Progress in the country’s response to contain AMR(2016–2021).
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Total consumption by antimicrobial classes in three countries of WHO SEA Region in 2020, expressed as DDD per 1000 inhabitants perday.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Antimicrobial Resistance Collaborators Global burden of bacterial antimicrobial resistance in 2019: a systematic analysis. Lancet. 2022;399(10325):629–655. - PMC - PubMed
    1. O’Neill J. Review on antimicrobial resistance. Tackling drug resistance infections globally. Wellcome Trust and HM Government. https://amr-review.org/ Available at:
    1. World Health Organization (WHO) Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) 2021. Antimicrobial resistance and The United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework: guidance for United Nations country teams.https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/346658 Available at:
    1. The World Bank [Press release] 2016. By 2050, drug-resistant infections could cause global economic damage on par with 2008 financial crisis.https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2016/09/18/by-2050-drug-... New York. Available at:
    1. Aslam B., Wang W., Arshad M.I., et al. Antibiotic resistance: a rundown of a global crisis. Infect Drug Resist. 2018;11:1645–1658. - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources