Abstract
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites develop or evolve ways to survive the drugs that are meant to destroy them thus threatening global health by making infections harder to treat. As a doctor, I have seen this firsthand. It is a problem that keeps me up at night. This article talks about the major challenges driving Antimicrobial resistance which are: 1. Excessive use of antibiotics 2. A sharp decline in new drug development 3. Weak systems for tracking resistance. These issues are interconnected as they create a crisis that affects patients all over the world. To tackle this, I suggest here solutions like: 1. Antimicrobial stewardship to reduce misuse of antibiotics. 2. Artificial intelligence (AI) to speed up drug discovery 3. Better infection control practices. Using data from PubMed, the World Health Organization (WHO), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), I bring attention to areas that are overlooked, such as economic barriers to research and development (R&D). I also look at case studies from Africa and South America (places that are often ignored in global health conversations) in order to show how AMR hits different regions. I also introduce the "AMR Resilience Framework" a new plan I have designed to guide efforts globally. This framework focuses on the following: 1. Funding 2. Collaboration 3. Technology to fight resistance. This article covers clinical impacts (e.g when treatments fail), financial costs (such as higher healthcare spending) and societal risks (e.g disease spread). My goal is to give medical professionals, researchers, policymakers and students, a clear and practical strategies. I have mixed current facts with future possibilities, so this work offers a fresh take on solving Antimicrobial resistance.
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