A group of infectious disease and public health experts are calling on the Department of Health and Minister Aaron Motsoaledi to reintroduce a national action plan addressing antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
An open letter from over 70 doctors, scientists and public health advisors states that antibiotic resistance is becoming a “growing threat” in the country and poses a threat to universal health coverage through the National Health Insurance.
Latest figures show that over one-million deaths a year worldwide are directly caused by AMR. This number is projected to increase. Nearly five-million people die with an antibiotic-resistant infection. Over the next 25 years, nearly 40-million people are projected to die from AMR.
The second edition of the South African Antimicrobial Resistance National Strategy Framework, from 2018-2024, has expired. The plan acknowledged that antimicrobial resistance is “a serious and growing global health security risk”.
The open letter also called on the department to reinstate a ministerial advisory committee on AMR or to establish a similar scientific body.
“The lack of a robust scientific advisory body limits the government’s capacity to develop evidence-based policies,” the letter reads. The establishment of a scientific body would “empower the government to make strategic, data-driven decisions to combat this pressing health threat effectively”.
The former Ministerial Advisory Committee was disbanded in November 2023.
Marc Mendelson, an infectious disease specialist at Groote Schuur Hospital who has been outspoken about the threat of AMR for many years, said: “AMR is a current pandemic which is wreaking havoc, is not being attended to properly and not being taken seriously enough in South Africa.”
Mendelson said that there are “more and more people having to be treated for highly resistant bacterial infections in our healthcare system”. AMR leads to an increase in morbidity, mortality, hospital costs, and also has socio-economic consequences, he said. Common medical interventions such as surgery “becomes much riskier” with AMR.
Department of Health spokesperson Foster Mohale said that the department would only comment once the letter was formally presented, which is expected to happen at 5pm on Thursday.
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