“Our Alliance has several important strengths: A multidisciplinary and multi-professional structure including veterinary medicine, strong involvement of consumers, participation of several parliamentarians (deputies), global programmes including antibiotic stewardship, infection control, use of old and recent diagnostic tools, research, and upgrades of vaccination programmes, official support from many professional societies, from many different countries or various bodies.”
The non-governmental organization ACdeBMR (L’Alliance contre le Développement des Bactéries Multirésistantes aux Antibiotiques) was constituted on 2 December 2011. Subsequently, its internationally adopted name in English became: “The World Alliance Against Antibiotic Resistance” (WAAAR).
Actions in 2015–2016
WAAAR has joined the network of international not-for-profit civil society organizations initiated by CDDEP (Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics, and Policy) and which will be launched on the occasion of the United Nations General Assembly, 21 September 2016 in New York City, Unites States.
WAAAR President Dr Jean Carlet will attend, as well as Garance Upham, Deputy Executive Secretary of WAAAR and member of Medicus Mundi International.
WAAAR in France
Founded in Paris, ACdeBMR/WAAAR is the major player in France itself and in the French speaking world on antibiotic resistance issues.
Dr Carlet and the WAAAR team campaigned for decisive action, and in early 2015 Dr Carlet was selected to put together and chair France’s National Task Force on the Preservation of Antibiotics for 2015 relying on the many experts who are members of the WAAAR in the field of human and animal health, diagnostics and economics, patient safety and hospital- acquired infections.
A major event is being prepared as part of the November European Union weeks of mobilization on AMR.
WAAAR internationally
WAAAR has many members and collaborators in French speaking Africa who lead actions on AMR, such as Dr Frank Mansour Adéoty in the Ivory Coast, former Minister of Health of Bénin, Dorothée Kinde Gazard, or retired (but ever active) Senegalese Colonel physician Babacar N’Doye whose top level international and national expertise in infection control was found very pertinent during the recent Ebola epidemic in Guinea Conakry.
WAAAR international seminars
Patient safety and HIV in the era of AMR
March 2016: WAAAR sponsored and organized a satellite event during ICAAP12 (International Conference on AIDS in Asia-Pacific) with Partners in Population and Development, on 21 March 2016.
Garance Upham was joined by USAID Assist, India’s desk Nigel Livesley (see article this issue) in presenting how HIV care is intimately concerned with AMR for three basic reasons: the rise in drug-resistant opportunistic infections, the risks of contracting drug-resistant pathogens in health systems, and, of course, the rise in ARV resistant HIV cases.
Meetings on this topic are prepared for 1 December 2016, World AIDS day, and in the AFRO region AIDS conference.
From Ebola to AMR: The urgency of infection control
May 2015: World Health Assembly WAAAR Geneva branch organized a satellite seminar at the United Nations Palais in coordination with South Africa, sponsored by Nigeria, Sierra Leone and the United States of America.
Co-chaired by Mrs Precious Matsoso, DG Health Systems in the RSA and Garance Upham, Deputy Secretary of WAAAR, the seminar was graced by WHO DG Margaret Chan, and heard high level country representatives such as DG Health for Sierra Leone, Dr Brima Kargbo, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Office of Global Affairs. Department of Health and Human Services, United States and Dr Mitchell Wolfe.
Among the keynote speakers on the topic was Dr Edward T Kelley, WHO Director for the Department of Health delivery and Security. High level representatives attending the World Health Assembly from many countries participated in the event.
WAAAR publications
After AMR Control 2015, here is AMR Control 2016, with participation from well known experts such as Lord Jim O’Neill from the United Kingdom Review on AMR, one of the major think tanks on AMR, Dr Awa Aidara Kane from the AGISAR WHO expert groups, and many more.
AMR Control 2015, published by Global Health Dynamics, has had a huge success. The book has been widely disseminated, in particular to agencies, like WHO, ECDC, CDC, the European Commission. A pre- 2016 edition has also been presented to high-level Ministers and DGS at the WHO Executive Board in January 2016 and at the United Nations World Health Assembly in May 2016.
AMR Control 2017 is being planned with many hot topics, including small and medium size companies innovations which may be very key to assist LMICs in this endeavour.
The AMR-Times Newsletter, Le Temps de la Résistance aux Antimicrobiens, is a new monthly email newsletter available in French and in English, with a less frequent edition in Arabic. And, it is expected, soon in Spanish and Portuguese. It has over 1,500 direct subscribers and an estimated reach approaching 6,000 via scientific and professional networks who are re-distributing the newsletter among their own network.
A mostly volunteer and doctoral students young team manages this project with offshoots in Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, The Netherlands, France, United Kingdom and Switzerland.
AMR-Times reports on leading scientific news on AMR, conferences and events. An e-Journal is under construction.
WAAAR interventions in scientific conferences
Dr Carlet, and other prominent members of WAAAR, present scientific papers in conferences around the world, too numerous to be listed here. These included high-level seminars and conferences over the last year: Oslo, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Amsterdam’s DRIVE-AB, French Foreign Ministry and WHO “Climate Change and Health”, Wilton Park Conference on AMR in LMICs.
We have intensified our relationships with official bodies and agencies (EU, CDC, ECDC, WHO…) All request copies of AMR Control and our input.
Dr Jean Carlet, MD, has published in many scientific journals for more than 20 years, specializing in acute care, on Sepsis, ARDS, issues in infection control and antibiotic resistance. As president of WAAAR and Chair of the French Task Force, the demand for publications and interventions in scientific congress has increased greatly.
WAAAR Board, membership and collaborations
WAAAR Board Members are Céline Pulcini, MD, Vice-President, Jean-Pierre Hermet, Joel Leroy, MD, Garance Upham, and Jean Carlet MD, President.
The 750 members of WAAAR are physicians, hospital managers, scientific researchers, hygiene nurses, patients and patient organizations, economists and concerned persons, from over 55 countries.
In June 2014, the WAAAR initiated the Paris Declaration which enlisted the support of over 100 persons and, up to 145 societies or institutes.
WAAAR is among the largest networks, along with REACT or APUA, of people actively working to make the world safe for human beings in the “post-antibiotic era”, a partner of the World Sepsis Day and a collaborator of COMBACTE.