Reduce pollution to fight 'superbugs,' AMR rise – UN
According to the UN, the pharmaceutical, agricultural and healthcare sectors are key drivers of AMR development and spread in the environment, together with pollutants from poor sanitation, sewage and municipal waste systems. UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen said the triple planetary crisis — climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss — had contributed to this. "Pollution of air, soil and waterways undermines the human right to a clean and healthy environment. The same drivers that cause environment degradation are worsening the antimicrobial resistance problem. The impacts of antimicrobial resistance could destroy our health and food systems," she warned. Tackling AMR requires a multisectoral response that recognizes that the health of people, animals, plants and the environment are closely linked and interdependent. "The environmental crisis of our time is also one of human rights and geopolitics. The antimicrobial resistance report published by [the] UNEP is yet another example of inequity, in that the AMR crisis is disproportionately affecting countries in the Global South," said Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, also the chairman of a UN-backed initiative of world leaders and experts examining the issue.