Topic:
Country: Colombia
Delegate Name: Izzy Sheppard
Country: Colombia
Committee: WHO
Topic: Antibiotic Resistance
Delegate: Izzy Sheppard
School: Williamston High School
Antibiotic Resistance has become a dangerous problem in the past few decades as people misuse and overuse antibiotics to the point where they have little to no effect against infections. Antibiotic Resistance is a bacteria or infection’s adaptation to resistance against antibiotics when an antibiotic has been improperly used. This became a problem around the 1950s, when penicillin, the very first antibiotic, had been overused so much that its overuse endangered the population, once again to the very same infections penicillin was once used to fight off. Antibiotic Resistance could be considered the fault of many things, such as misuse and overuse of antibiotics, for example taking antibiotics even when a person doesn’t have an infection in hopes to prevent future infection. Antibiotic Resistance could also be attributed to the lack of more antibiotics being produced and discovered, for example only two new types of antibiotics have been produced in the past decade. Antibiotic Resistance is still a problem today and will continue to be a problem unless more actions are taken to counteract Antibiotic Resistance.
Colombia is very interested in furthering the fight against Antibiotic Resistance, for the majority, because Antibiotic Resistance is a threat to all people everywhere. Colombia, like most countries, suffers from misuse of antibiotics, for example, 56% of the population in Colombia’s capital of Bogotá had purchased antibiotics without a prescription. In hopes to fight Antibiotic Resistance, Colombia has developed a National Antimicrobial Resistance Response Plan(National AMR Plan). The National AMR Plan consists of five parts which are all with the goal of fighting Antibiotic Resistance. Colombia is also enrolled in the World Health Organization’s(WHO) Global Antimicrobial Resistance and Use Surveillance System(GLASS), the Global Action Plan to Tackle AMR(GAP-AMR), and has adopted the WHO’s AWaRe classifications of antibiotics.
Colombia would like to improve the surveillance of antibiotics sales further, support better overall hygiene to decrease the chance of infection by increasing the amount of hygiene care taught in primary and secondary schools, provide more funding to research antibiotics in hopes of discovering new antibiotics, and have better education about proper antibiotic usage through mass media and social media to counteract antibiotic abuse. Colombia believes that better support against antibiotic abuse should be encouraged everywhere, especially in countries that have major struggles with Antibiotic Resistance such as China, The U.S.A., and Kuwait.
