This week there are many important developments competing for attention. A crisis has been building up in Ukraine, with the US and Russia on the brink and NATO on the alert. Ukraine joined NATO's enhanced opportunity partner interoperability program on 12 June 2020 and has links with the rest of Europe. The question of ‘will they or won’t they’ (go to war, that is), has for the moment become somewhat less critical as attempts are on to deescalate the crisis.
There was speculation over India’s reaction. India has traditionally strong links with Russia and is fast building up its relations with the West. India, therefore, wisely abstained from a vote on the Ukraine issue in the UN Security Council on Monday and called for finding a solution that takes into account “the legitimate security interests of all countries and aimed towards securing long term peace and stability in the region and beyond.” Kenya and Gabon also abstained, while Russia and China voted against it. The US move received support from nine other UN Security Council members.
India’s Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman painted an upbeat picture of India’s economic future in the budget 2022. Budget highlights are readily available.
A historic Australian Open tennis tournament just concluded in Melbourne. Rafael Nadal made history by becoming the first one to win 21 Grand Slam men’s singles titles. Another history was made in women’s tennis as Ashleigh Barty became the first Australian to win this Grand Slam title since 1978, ending a 44-year long drought. This time, the drama started unfolding even prior to the tournament as Novak Djokovic landed for the tournament without being vaccinated against Covid and was deported after a battle in court.
The Djokovic saga seemed to almost eclipse the developments that followed at the tournament. But more than the event itself, the entire story raised important issues surrounding vaccination. There are those who support individual liberty and the right to choose, especially amongst those who oppose vaccination for one reason or another. There are also those who feel that no individual should have the right to endanger himself and/or others and that in a global pandemic, it is everyone’s responsibility to help end the pandemic, and that vaccination offers the hope for conquering the pandemic.
Any of these subjects would suffice to be the focus of one’s weekly column. But this week I decided to focus on the important subject of antimicrobial resistance or AMR. The Lancet published a stark analysis that covered more than 200 countries and territories, saying that AMR is killing more people than HIV/Aids or malaria. Many hundreds of thousands of deaths are occurring due to common, previously treatable infections because bacteria that cause them have become resistant to treatment. A report in the Guardian newspaper highlighted that antimicrobial resistance poses a significant threat to humanity as it has become a leading cause of death worldwide and is killing about 3,500 people every day. It said that more than 1.2 million died in 2019 as a direct result of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections.
AMR poses a threat to people of all ages, but young children were found to be at particularly high risk: one in five deaths attributable to AMR occurred in children under the age of five. Deaths caused directly by AMR were estimated to be the highest in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, at 24 deaths per 100,000 population and 22 deaths per 100,000 population respectively. But high-income countries are not immune either. AMR led directly to 13 deaths per 100,000 and was associated with 56 deaths per 100,000. In the western Europe region, which includes the UK, more than 51,000 people died as a direct result of AMR.
A big reason for AMR is how we use or rather misuse medicines. Indian television journalist, Palki Sharma Upadhyay highlighted this in her recent report on WION TV by underlining that India’s favourite snack is not bhujia or samosa, but a tablet for fever and body ache. 3.5 billion tablets of this particular brand have been sold since the beginning of the 2020 pandemic. Stacked up, they would form a tower 63000 times taller than Burj Khalifa and 6000 times taller than Mt Everest. Self-medication without consulting doctors and leaving treatment incomplete are increasingly contributing to AMR. People often stop taking antibiotics when the symptoms ease instead of completing the full course of antibiotics prescribed.
AMR is not a new problem. It has been building up over the years but has reached a crisis point now. Having seen the devastation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the focus is urgently required to address this global challenge. Each of us has a responsibility here!
