World Health Day 2011 atonce111news

World Health day is celebrated on 7th April every year to mark the founding of WHO. The Organization selects a key health issue and encourages people from all ages and all backgrounds to hold events that highlight the significance of the issue for good health and well being. Antimicrobial resistance is not a new problem but one that is becoming more dangerous. Urgent and consolidated efforts are needed to avoid regressing to the pre-antibiotic era. In the light of these, the WHO has selected Combat Antimicrobial Resistance as the theme for World Health Day-7th April 2011.
What is antimicrobial resistance?
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is resistance of a microorganism to an antimicrobial medicine to which it was previously sensitive.
Why is antimicrobial
resistance a global concern?
•    AMR microorganisms often fail to respond to the standard treatment, resulting in prolonged illness and greater risk of death.
•    AMR hampers the control of infectious diseases by reducing the effectiveness of treatment because patients remain infectious for longer,sunglasses oakley, thus potentially spreading resistant microorganisms to others.
•    AMR threatens a return to the pre-antibiotic era as many infectious diseases risk becoming uncontrollable and could derail the progress made towards reaching the targets of the health-related United Nations Millennium Development Goals set for 2015.
•    AMR increases the costs of health care:-
When infections become resistant to first-line medicines, more expensive therapies must be used. The longer duration of illness and treatment, often in hospitals, increases health-care costs and the financial burden to families and societies.
•    AMR jeopardizes health-care gains to society without effective antimicrobials for care and prevention of infections, the success of treatments such as organ transplantation, cancer chemotherapy and major surgery would be compromised.
•    AMR threatens health security, and damages trade and economies:-
The growth of global trade and travel allows resistant microorganisms to be spread rapidly to distant countries and continents.
Facts on antimicrobial resistance
•    About 440 000 new cases of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) emerge annually, causing atleast 150 000 deaths. Extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) has  been reported in 64 countries to date.
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