Anti-microbial overuse ‘a public health emergency’

ROME: Anti-microbial resistance is “a major though silent global threat to human and animal health, with implications for both food safety and food security and the economic well-being of millions of farming households,” three key United Nations health and food agencies said in a joint statement.

“The world is in the midst of a different kind of public health emergency, one that is just as dramatic but not as visible. Except for the headline-grabbing ‘superbugs’, anti-microbial resistance (AMR) doesn’t cause much public alarm,” the heads of the World Health Organization (WHO), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and the World Organization for Animal Health warned in a joint statement last week.