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Image credit: Satirus, Getty Images.
The High-Level Meeting on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) at the UN General Assembly today is a pivotal opportunity for world leaders to adopt an ambitious and coordinated approach to tackle the biggest health challenge of our lifetime.
We are seeing the devastating impacts of AMR all around us. Babies in Nigeria are rapidly colonised with multi-drug resistant bacteria in their gastrointestinal gut, and antibiotics are becoming increasingly ineffective in treating common illnesses such as urinary tract infections. Hospital stays for patients with AMR average around 13 days, causing an additional 8 million hospital days annually.