Knowledge is King
It took European countries decades to make the changes needed to address the issue, so countries like Burundi, Bolivia, or Bhutan cannot be expected to do it overnight, Lubroth said.
The first step is to know where drugs are being used, how much are used, and improve veterinary services in developing countries, said Matthew Stone, OIE’s deputy director general.
“Encouraging a worldwide statutory ban is not going to be effective when the veterinary services don’t have the basic means of regulating the use of antimicrobials, let alone the ability to regulate for and enforce a ban,” he said.
In the meantime, the clock is ticking.
Some cheap and—until recently—highly effective antibiotics can no longer be used to treat people in many countries, said WHO’s Tayler.
There have even been signs of emerging resistance to the antibiotic colistin, which is used as a last resort to save people’s lives when all other drugs have failed.
The impact of losing cheap and effective antibiotics for treating people will be felt hardest in developing countries, Tayler said.
“They have more infection sloshing around, less other ways to treat it,” she said. “…nearly every country has got more to do.”
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