Antimicrobial Resistance: Challenges And Solutions

Dr Oyedeji Olugbenga James

doi:10.56201/jbgr.vol.11.no3.2025.pg54.63

📄 Download Paper

Antimicrobial Resistance: Challenges And Solutions

Dr Oyedeji Olugbenga James

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.

Keywords

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR)BacteriaVirusesFungiParasitesAntibiotics

References

. Abera, B., et al. (2014). Antimicrobial resistance in Ethiopia. Ethiopian Medical Journal, 52(3), 123–130. Ardal, C., et al. (2019). Antibiotic development: Economic barriers. Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, 18(4), 259–270 Barlam, T. F., et al. (2016). Implementing antimicrobial stewardship. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 62(10), e51–e77. Boucher, H. W., et al. (2009). Bad bugs, no drugs. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 48(1), 1–12. Brito, M., et al. (2018). Antibiotic misuse in South America. Revista de Saúde Pública, 52, 45. Bush, K., & Jacoby, G. A. (2010). Beta-lactamases and resistance. Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, 54(3), 969–976. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2019). Antibiotic resistance threats in the United States. https://www.cdc.gov/drugresistance/pdf/threats-report/2019-ar-threats-report- 508.pdf Cosgrove, S. E. (2006). The cost of AMR in healthcare. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 42(Suppl 2), S82–S89. Davies, J., & Davies, D. (2010). Origins of antibiotic resistance. Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews, 74(3), 417–433. Escobar, P., et al. (2016). Pseudomonas resistance in South American ICUs. Journal of Critical Care, 31(1), 145–150. Grace, D. (2015). Antibiotic use in livestock in Africa. ILRI Research Reports. Kakkar, M., et al. (2018). Education on AMR in Uganda. Global Health Action, 11(1), 1496643. Kortright, K. E., et al. (2019). Phage therapy: A renewed approach. Nature Reviews Microbiology, 17(6), 344–358. Laxminarayan, R., et al. (2013). Policy barriers to AMR solutions. Lancet Infectious Diseases, 13(12), 1057–1098. Leopold, S. J., et al. (2014). AMR in sub-Saharan Africa. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 58(8), 1072–1082. Murray, C. J., et al. (2022). Global burden of bacterial AMR in 2019. The Lancet, 399(10325), 629–655. Naidoo, R., et al. (2018). Hygiene and MRSA reduction in South Africa. South African Medical Journal, 108(6), 456–460. O’Neill, J. (2016). Tackling drug-resistant infections globally. Review on Antimicrobial Resistance. Okeke, I. N., et al. (2005). AMR in African hospitals. Lancet Infectious Diseases, 5(9), 568–579. Pan American Health Organization. (2019). AMR awareness campaigns. PAHO Reports. Rosenthal, V. D., et al. (2015). Catheter infections in South America. American Journal of Infection Control, 43(6), 617–622. Stokes, J. M., et al. (2020). AI-driven antibiotic discovery. Cell, 180(4), 688–702. Tadesse, B. T., et al. (2017). Surveillance gaps in Africa. Emerging Infectious Diseases, 23(11), 1823–1830. Thomas, C. M., & Nielsen, K. M. (2005). Horizontal gene transfer. Nature Reviews Microbiology, 3(9), 711–721. Topol, E. J. (2019). AI in medicine: The future. Nature Medicine, 25(1), 44–56. Ventola, C. L. (2015). The antibiotic resistance crisis. Pharmacy and Therapeutics, 40(4), 277– Villegas, M. V., et al. (2016). Carbapenem resistance in South America. Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, 60(3), 1370–1376. Whitney, C. G., et al. (2004). Pneumococcal vaccine impact. New England Journal of Medicine, 350(11), 1134–1141. World Bank. (2017). Drug-resistant infections: A threat to our economic future. World Bank Reports. World Health Organization. (2017). Global action plan on AMR. WHO Publications. World Health Organization. (2019). AWaRe classification of antibiotics. WHO Guidelines. World Health Organization. (2022). Global Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance System (GLASS) report. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240049383

Antimicrobial Resistance: Challenges And Solutions

Abstract

Keywords

References

More Articles from JOURNAL OF BIOLOGY AND GENETIC RESEARCH