Topic:
Country: France
Delegate Name: Julia Callahan
World Health Organization (WHO)
Antibiotic Resistance
France
Julia Callahan
East Grand Rapids
Antibiotic Resistance is a burgeoning problem that jeopardizes the ability to treat prevalent infectious diseases. As a delegate of France, it is our mission to subvert the effects of resistance. It has been almost a century since antibiotics were first introduced, and immense advancements have been made. First established by Alexander Fleming, he discovered that it could target certain bacteria without harming the surrounding cells through his finding of penicillin. This finding adapted the medical scene immensely, utilizing antibiotics to fight infections during WWII. Today we apply antibiotics to human, pet, and agricultural diseases. Though, with the misuse and overconsumption of said antibiotics, a once helpful solution to infection now has a negative impact, preventing restoration, making it significantly harder to combat viruses such as strains of pneumonia, tuberculosis, and certain food-borne diseases. Since the introduction of antibiotics, millions have been produced and consumed—furthermore, time to build up resistant strains from misuse, underuse, and overuse. In 2019, there were 4.95 million deaths related to AMR, 1.27 million correlating directly to it. These numbers surpass the number of deaths caused by HIV/AIDS and malaria significantly. The spread of resistance is increasing substantially, and steps must be taken at all levels of society to end the dissemination.
France has a prodigious history regarding AC (antimicrobial consumption), the AC rates are 30% higher when it comes to both hospital, and personal use, compared to our other European counterparts mean’s. Regarding countries with low resistance and consumption rate, France is 2-3 times higher. The AMR in France has flourished immensely. Notably, 12% of E. coli strains, which cause many diseases, are now resistant to the drug cephalosporins. This data is detrimental because we will eventually resort to old or toxic drugs to isolate and kill strains as resistance continues. Though with AMR’s escapable nature, those drugs will still build up resistance, forcing us to one day resort to a “pre-biotic era.” France initiated a program to counteract the heavy AMR and AC problem as numbers continued to rise. From 2001 to 2005, France presented extensive information on the negative impacts of antibiotics and the effects of resistant strains. This campaign had notable results, decreasing AC by 18%-34% in 5 years. 2005-2010 was stagnant as mass amounts of information regarding AMR were no longer distributed. Finally, from 2010-2018 AC increased by 8%.
In 2021, the UN passed the “Call to Action on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) proposal.” They stressed the importance of building awareness of the issue in all countries while also establishing a deal of support for the “One Health” initiative created by India. “One Health” groups all life as one. It’s essential to give enough funding to ͞Tripartite Plus organizations to implicate the “One Health” initiative.
France believes that proper education and data collection of AMR/AC numbers is vital to distill in the people the adverse effects of antibiotic misuse and the future of health if resistance continues. People must be adequately informed on the proper dosage when it comes to antibiotics, and the sacrifice one makes when they don’t follow instructions precisely.
