THE Fleming Fund has extended support towards the refurbishment and upgrading of two laboratories in Manicaland Province, one at Victoria Chitepo Provincial Hospital and another one at the Department of Veterinary Services, with the aim of addressing gaps in the surveillance of Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR).
By Michael Gwarisa
Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites change over time and no longer respond to medicines making infections harder to treat and increasing the risk of disease spread, severe illness and death. According to statistics, more than 1.2 million people died worldwide in 2019 from infections caused by bacteria resistant to antibiotics, according to the largest study of the issue to date.
Speaking at the official handover of the laboratories, Ministry of Health and Child Care (MoHCC) Chief Director Pubic Health, Dr Munyaradzi Dobbie paid tribute to the Fleming Fund and its partners in Zimbabwe for prioritising AMR surveillance.
Laboratory diagnosis is an essential element of disease surveillance both for routine confirmation of infections and for rapid identification of cause and outbreaks of epidemics. I therefor would like to express my gratitude to the Fleming Find through the support they have given in strengthening this critical component in our health system.
“We thank the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) an its implementing partners, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Biomedical Research and Training Institute (BRTI) in facilitating the use of the Fleming Grant to build the country’s capacity to monitor AMR in different sectors using the integrated One Health Approach,” Said Dr Dobbie.
He added that the nation was poised to make a significant footprint in its fight against AMR through these effective collaboration among sectors.
“We can hope that this momentum can also reach other pillars of One-Health which include food safety and zoonosis. This is also in line with a whole government approach in our National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1). Allow me to thank all the partners who are involved in the AMR response. Let me stress that the AMR response requires a whole of society approach, hence all of us are called to play our part in the prevention and control of AMR.
“That includes using medicines rationally, maintaining optimum hand hygiene, avoiding procuring medicines from the informal markets and ensuring that our environment is hygienic and free from diseases causing agents such as garbage and waste. AMR is a threat to the current medical achievements, let us come together as a family, community, nation and as a world and spread awareness. This is the time to take action to protect ourselves.”
Dr Patrice Talla, the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation (UNFO) Sub-Regional Coordinator for Southern Africa and Representative in Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Eswatin said AMR remains high on FAO agenda, since they play a key role in providing technical support to governments, producers, traders and other stakeholders to move towards the responsible use of antimicrobials in food and agriculture sectors.
“The ultimate goal is to reduce Antimicrobial Resistance in food systems. As a starting point, FAO working together with government of Zimbabwe counterparts conducted a situational analysis on AMR using a one health approach which lead to the development of an AMR National Action Plan, which was launched in September 2017,” said Dr Talla.
To further this support, he added that FAO together with its implementing partners WHO and BRTI successfully won the Fleming Fund country grant for Zimbabwe to support AMR surveillance. This grant focuses on five investment areas, which are: Enhancement of Laboratory infrastructure. , strengthening Human resources and workforce reforms. It also focuses on strengthening Surveillance systems, building foundations for AMR surveillance data use and Promoting rational use of antimicrobial medicine.
Completion of the renovation of Laboratories in Manicaland is one of the achievements of the Fleming Fund country grant for Zimbabwe.
“This achievement was made possible as a result of strong collaboration between the Government of Zimbabwe and FAO together with its implementing partners. The implementation of the remaining planned interventions under this grant will continue and once those are achieved, they contribute to the capacity of the country to: Increase the quality and quantity of AMR and AMU data collected. Sharing of AMR and AMU data to support evidence-based policy and practice sharing of AMR and AMU data internationally to improve transparency and inform the global response, among others.”
Meanwhile, Dr Josphat Nyika, the Chief Director for the Department of Veterinary Services (DVS) said misuse and abuse of Antimicrobials in the poultry farming sector was fertile ground for Antimicrobial resistance.
“AMR is a global threat to human health, animal health, plant health and the environment which we all share. In response to this threat of AMR, the Tripartite, AFO, WHO and OIE unanimously agreed to use the One Health Approach to address the AMr global threat.
“In 2015, the AMR action plan was developed by the WHO and adopted by the Tripartite and in 2016 the OIE developed the strategy on AMR and prudent use of Antimicrobials. In 2017, Zimbabwe developed the national One Health AMR Action plan aligned to the global AMR action plan. In developing the action plan, Zimbabwe did an exhaustive AMR and Antimicrobial use situation analysis which among other weaknesses we identified the surveillance systems for AMR resistance,” said Dr Nyika.
He added that DVS is currently in the process of producing Theileriosis vaccine with support from the FAO/OIE funding to reduce the use of tetracyclines in cattle. He said they were grateful to these investments and support for the renovations and upgrading of provincial veterinary laboratories by the UK’s Department of Health and Social Care under its Fleming Fund Grants Program through Mott MacDonald, FAO and BRTI.
