Four UN bodies have jointly launched a ‘Quadripartite toolkit’ for the media to prevent a global public health threat of Antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) launched the toolkit at a virtually held event on Monday.
The AMR toolkit is in English and will soon be made available in many other languages, said Mimi Melles-Brewer, Technical Officer, AMR Awareness and Campaigns, WHO headquarters.
Mimi Melles-Brewer added that while AMR is severely underreported, it continues to remain a global threat - and cost of inaction is significant. We need to strengthen media engagement on AMR.
Dr Philip Mathew, a WHO Technical Officer, hoped that people would find the toolkit very useful to use for media engagement on antimicrobial resistance.
FAO to continue efforts in promoting jackfruit in Bangladesh“Some key takeaways are to break down the complexity of the AMR issue step-by-step into simple language and making sure that media are able to access the right information at the right time. I also think stories are very important in conveying AMR to people, especially to the media, and we have to make sure that people do understand that there are lives and people behind any number and statistic.”
Drug-resistant microbes can pass between animals, plants and food, and in the environment. A ‘One Health’ approach which recognizes that the health of animals, humans, pl
AMR Response Alliance calls for rational use of antibioticsants and the environment are interlinked is therefore essential to respond to AMR, said Yerkem Sembayeva, Communications Specialist of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
Yerkem added that “numbers do not lie. Almost 5 million deaths were associated with AMR in a year. AMR puts many of the gains of modern medicine at risk. It makes infections harder to treat and makes other medical procedures and treatments – such as surgery, cesarean sections and cancer chemotherapy – much riskier. In addition to death and disability, AMR has significant economic costs. The World Bank estimates that AMR could result in US$ 1 trillion additional healthcare costs by 2050, and US$ 1 trillion to US$ 3.4 trillion gross domestic product (GDP) losses per year by 2030."
Various forms of media help to shape public opinion, narratives and discourse that affect public behaviour, knowledge, attitudes, and practice.
Yerkem said that the media also helps to dispel myths and misconceptions, combat misinformation and promote evidence- and science-based information.
Media were therefore identified as one of four priorities during two global consultations with over 200 people from diverse sectors, for raising awareness about AMR, organized in 2022 by the Quadripartite organizations.
"In response, the Quadripartite has developed this practical toolkit for engaging media in AMR which is being launched today."
Language matters
“Our association with AMR began early on when we lost one of our members in the mid-1990s due to drug-resistant TB. It was also then that one of our friends from the medical fraternity in Lucknow shared with us that he had seen his first case of drug-resistant TB in 1976. The danger of drug-resistant microbes and the threat they pose to our health and wellbeing has sadly grown manifold since then. Such a long history of AMR and sub-optimal inaction,” said Shobha Shukla, Managing Editor of CNS and a lead writer of the Quadripartite toolkit. She is also the Chairperson of the Global AMR Media Alliance (GAMA).
“For me on a personal level, humanizing drug resistance or AMR has been the biggest lynchpin that brings people together to address AMR. Anyone of us is at risk of suffering due to AMR – and this reality needs to seep in – deep within – to invoke engagement and action on an individual level and join hands with the media for better policies, programs, and actions to combat AMR,” she said.
“Explaining an issue in a language and context which could be better understood by a media personnel is important. Are we using engaging words and terminologies or disengaging ones when speaking with a diverse audience? Language needs to be understood as well as must be human-rights based, people-centred and gender transformative. For instance, we must not shift the blame on people who are suffering due to AMR. Using rights-based, people-centred and easy to understand language and terminologies have gone a long way in increasing, sustaining and growing our media engagement,” added Shobha.
