30 May 2024

National Action Plan for Antimicrobial Resistance: A Roadmap for 2024-2029

National Action Plan for Antimicrobial Resistance: A Roadmap for 2024-2029

Antimicrobials are critical in modern medicine, essential for treating infections in humans and animals, supporting surgical procedures, and facilitating cancer therapies. However, the increasing resistance of microorganisms to these drugs poses a significant threat to public health. Resistant organisms can spread via humans, animals, food, and the environment, reducing the efficacy of treatments and endangering lives. 

In 2019, the UK unveiled a 20-year vision to control and contain antimicrobial resistance (AMR) by 2040. This vision is supported by a series of 5-year national action plans (NAPs) to ensure continuous progress. The initial plan Tackling Antimicrobial Resistance 2019-2024 led to notable achievements, such as reducing antibiotic use in food-producing animals, improving surveillance systems, and piloting new NHS antibiotic payment schemes. 

Building on this foundation, the 2024-2029 NAP Confronting Antimicrobial Resistance aims to advance towards the 2040 vision through nine strategic outcomes under four key themes. These themes encompass human health, animal health, agriculture, and the environment, in a One Health approach. 

Theme 1: Reducing the need for, and unintentional exposure to, antimicrobials 

1. Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) and Infection Management: A whole-systems approach to enhance IPC, improve diagnostics, and optimise treatment across various settings, including humans, animals, agriculture, and the environment. 

2. Public Engagement and Education: Efforts will focus on raising public awareness about the risks of antimicrobial exposure, empowering communities to support AMR reduction. 

3. Strengthened Surveillance: Enhancing surveillance aims to provide a deeper understanding of AMR, helping predict and track the spread of resistant microorganisms across different sectors. 

Theme 2: Optimising the use of antimicrobials 

4. Antimicrobial Stewardship and Disposal: Initiatives will be implemented to ensure prudent use of antimicrobials, preserving their effectiveness for future generations. 

5. AMR Workforce: Training and raising awareness among healthcare, veterinary, and agricultural professionals will be crucial to promoting optimal antimicrobial use. 

Theme 3: Investing in innovation, supply, and access 

6. Innovation and Influence: The life sciences sector will be encouraged to develop new diagnostic and treatment approaches, vaccines, and antimicrobials, prioritising innovation in combatting infections. 

7. Using Information for Action: Aims to ensure decision-making is informed by robust surveillance data, scientific research, and comprehensive data sets, identifying key research priorities to tackle AMR effectively. 

8. Health Disparities and Health Inequalities: Improving data collection on AMR burden will aim to help target interventions to areas most affected, addressing health disparities and inequalities. 

Theme 4: Being a good global partner 

9. AMR Diplomacy: Recognising AMR as a global issue, the UK should engage in sustained international collaboration through G7, G20, and other multilateral groups, fostering worldwide action against AMR. 

This NAP aims to preserve the effectiveness of antimicrobials through a One Health approach, integrating efforts across human and animal health, food safety, and environmental sectors. By advancing research and understanding, the plan seeks to identify effective strategies to combat AMR, ensuring these critical medicines remain viable for future generations., with the utlimate goal of containing and controlling AMR by 2040. 

Session recordings from CPC will soon be available on the event app for attendees – why not dive back into Kieran Hand’s session Antimicrobial Resistance - the new 5-year UK AMR National Action Plan to find out more about your role in tackling anti-microbial resistance? 

Further reading: 

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-5-year-action-plan-for-antimicrobial-resistance-2024-to-2029/confronting-antimicrobial-resistance-2024-to-2029 

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