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FIND intervention statement at the side event on accelerating a one health response to antimicrobial resistance during the 4th G20 health working group meeting

Side event on accelerating a one health response to antimicrobial resistance

Delivered by Claire Wingfield , FIND, Director, Partnerships & Advocacy
1 September 2024, Natal, Brazil

Thank you, chair.

As has been acknowledged by G20 member states, testing is essential in combatting AMR. Accurate and timely diagnosis can enable the initiation of appropriate treatment and prevent unnecessary  use of antimicrobials.

FIND works with partners to increase access to testing for AMR related infections at the primary care level, improve diagnosis in hospitals for drug-resistant infections and support the development of digital tools to strengthen AMR surveillance and antimicrobial stewardship. We are exploring technologies such as next-generation sequencing to support diagnosis of drug-resistant infections and strengthen surveillance programmes.

Our experience has demonstrated that innovative diagnostics, responsible antimicrobial stewardship and data-driven decision making prevents and reduces the impact of AMR. As the climate crisis exacerbates the spread of AMR, it is crucial to improve access to adequate and affordable testing, particularly for vulnerable populations, including women and girls.

As the G20 deliberates on commitments to strengthen measures on One Health and AMR, we ask for the following be considered:

  • Invest in developing and enabling equitable access to climate tolerant, point-of-care diagnostics that are affordable, tailored to community needs, and effective in low resource settings.
  • Strengthen laboratory capacity and leverage digital tools to build One Health surveillance platforms for data collection and analysis to map the emergence of resistance and enable data-driven decision making.
  • Incentivize the development of companion diagnostics for any new therapeutics and robust stewardship strategies.

As Mr. Purdie mentioned, AMR has a generational impact and while AMR is invisible, survivors are not. FIND remains committed to ensuring that everyone who needs a test can get one.

Thank you.