Workshop on antimicrobial resistance concludes

Islamabad : A two-day consultative workshop focusing on the basic concepts of Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), its severity, and methods to estimate AMR concluded here Wednesday, with the staff of the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) and other regional provincial regulatory bodies benefiting from the capacity-building activity.

Organised by the UK aid-funded Fleming Fund Country Grant-DAI, the workshop was arranged to apprise the participants of the importance of AMR and the stewardship programmes that can be established to cope with issues related to AMR.

In addition to the Chief Executive Officer of DRAP Asim Rauf, the workshop was addressed by Dr. Ayesha Rasheed, Team Lead of Fleming Fund Country Grant-DAI, Hafiz Alam Sher from the Provincial Pharmacovigilance Center, Punjab, Dr. Zikriya Saleem from the University of Lahore, and Dr. Huma Qureshi.

Dr. Abdur Rashid, Director of DRAP’s Division of Pharmacy Services, hoped that with the help of DAI Fleming Fund, the hurdles currently being faced in data collection and surveillance system of AMR will soon be overcome.

Following up on this, Dr Ayesha Rasheed said, “The Fleming Fund has identified growing AMR links to drugs; there is a need for comprehensive actions within the ‘One Health’ approach to efficiently tackle AMR.” She also shared the achievements and geographical presence of the programme in Pakistan.

Asim Rauf termed health as a key priority and the proper use of antibiotics as being fundamental to saving lives. “There are no quantitative data for infections and bacterias; we all have to play our role or we will miss the opportunity to save precious lives,” he warned.

Hafiz Alam Sher trained the participants about calculation of antimicrobial consumption, using sales data. The training was followed by group activities after which all groups shared their respective findings and observations.

The session was closed by Dr. Huma Qureshi after a question-answer session. All speakers highlighted the importance of an AMR surveillance system and agreed that involving the entire chain of stakeholders from the beginning and taking all partners along to combat AMR can bring positive changes.