Global inaction on Antimicrobial Resistance, ARM, is a critical threat to modern medicine, an expert at the World Health Organisation, WHO, Dr Massimo Sartelli has warned.
Sartelli is a consultant surgeon and coordinator of scientific activities at the Department of General and Emergency Surgery, Macerata Hospital in Italy.
He told the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, at the weekend, via a telephone interview that ARM has the potential to usher in a “post-antibiotic era” where common infections become untreatable,
He said the spread of drug-resistant infections is far outpacing current containment efforts.
“AMR is a complex and silent pandemic that requires urgent, coordinated and global action.
“We need an adaptive, multi-pronged approach involving many stakeholders, working locally, nationally and globally, to attain optimal health for people, animals and the environment.
“There is no silver bullet to address AMR. What is needed is a comprehensive and solidaristic model. This is the only solution for a problem that knows no borders,” he said.
He noted that the world continues to underestimate the scale and speed of the crisis.
He explained that antimicrobial effectiveness must be treated as a finite, global public good, warning that its misuse and neglect could lead to a post-antibiotic era, where even minor infections could become deadly.
Unlike well-known diseases like malaria or HIV, he said AMR often remains invisible, making it harder to prioritise.
However, Sartelli stressed that this “invisibility” makes it more dangerous, as it continues to silently compromise health systems.
“AMR should be seen as a global burden, requiring multidisciplinary collaboration across human, animal and environmental health, what we call a ‘One Health’ approach,” he said.
While each country needs a tailored national action plan, he insisted that international cooperation is essential, noting that “AMR is everyone’s problem and all countries must play a role in the solution.”
NAN reports that WHO said AMR is projected to cause up to 10 million deaths annually by 2050 if unchecked. Despite this alarming statistics, funding and political will remain inadequate.
Sartelli and other experts believe that unless governments begin to treat antimicrobial resistance with the urgency of climate change or pandemic threats, the world risks losing the foundation of modern medicine. NAN
