An analysis of national action plans (NAPs) on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) “shows a ‘marked divide’ in how high-income and low-income countries are able to respond to AMR, with low-income nations hampered by poor governance and systemic challenges.” CIDRAP has the news.
A team of researchers used a “governance framework to assess 161 publicly available NAPs developed and implemented since 2017. … The framework consisted of 54 indicators pertaining to 18 domains that focus on three main areas relevant to global health governance: policy design, implementation tools, and monitoring and evaluation.”
The researchers found that “governance scores varied considerably across countries but were generally higher in high-income countries than low-income countries, indicating more effective and robust AMR control measures in countries with stronger economies,” including the U.S. Economic strength seems “closely aligned with both income levels and regional affiliation, emphasizing a global inequality in antimicrobial resistance scores based on economic development.”
Higher governance scores were also “associated with a lower burden of AMR-associated disability-adjusted life-years and death. Infection prevention and control, surveillance, and antimicrobial stewardship were the domains most strongly correlated with a lower burden of drug-resistant infections.”
