GS Paper 2
Syllabus: Issues relating to health
Source: DTE
Context: The Quadripartite – comprising the FAO, UNEP, WHO and the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) – released the One Health Priority Research Agenda on Antimicrobial Resistance.
The agenda defines ‘One Health’: The concept acknowledges the health of humans, domestic and wild animals, plants, and the larger environment, including ecosystems, are inextricably linked and interdependent.
The link between ‘One Health’ and AMR:
- At this One Health interface, addressing global health issues necessitates a multisectoral, multidisciplinary response to AMR.
- Using a mixed-methods approach, global experts identified five key pillars as well as three cross-cutting themes, as follows:
Five key pillars:
- Transmission: This pillar focuses on the environment, plant, animal, and human sectors where AMR transmission, circulation and spread occur.
- Integrated surveillance: This pillar aims to identify cross-cutting priority research questions in order to improve common technical understanding and information exchange among One Health stakeholders.
- Interventions: This pillar focuses on programmes, practises, tools, and activities aimed at preventing, containing, or reducing the incidence, prevalence, and spread of AMR.
- Behavioural insights and change: It focuses on research addressing human behaviour that affects AMR, including ways to combat it.
- Economics and policy: This pillar takes into account the cost-effectiveness of an AMR investment case, financial sustainability, and long-term financial impact.
Purpose of priority research agenda:
- To better advocate for increased research and investment in antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
- To guide a variety of stakeholders in generating new evidence to address AMR, with a focus on low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
- The agenda also emphasises the importance of developing research capacity in LMICs, which will be critical for addressing research gaps and developing evidence.
Significance of the agenda:
- It will serve as a guide for countries, research institutes and funding bodies to support One Health AMR research.
- It will also allow policymakers, researchers, and the multidisciplinary scientific community to collaborate across sectors.
Other similar efforts: WHO also launched a global research agenda for AMR in human health, prioritising 40 research topics for evidence generation to inform policy and interventions by 2030.
Way ahead: The priority research agenda requires contextualisation at the regional and country level and the development of specific research relevant to the needs of different countries and One Health settings.
Conclusion: Implementing this research agenda will address the threat of AMR and support the national action plan (NAP) implementation and achievement of the SDGs for 2030.
Insta Links:
A ‘One Health’ approach that targets people, animals
Mains Links:
What do you understand about the ‘one health approach’? Examine its role in preventing outbreaks of various infections. (250 words)
