Newswise — In a recent opinion piece published in the journal One Health, Oladele “Dele” Ogunseitan, PhD, UC Presidential Chair and Professor of Population Health and Disease Prevention at UCI Public Health, advocates for novel approaches to combating one of today’s most pressing global health issues: antibiotic resistance.
Antibiotic resistance is a natural process that arises through the overprescription of antibiotics, overuse in animal food farming, and incomplete courses of antibiotics that results in the emergence of resistant bacterial strains, or “superbugs”. Antimicrobial resistance is a global issue of disparities, with certain regions of the world more burdened by disease than others. To fill these gaps, Ogunseitan argues that we should look to the One Health model for solutions.
According to the CDC, One Health is an approach that recognizes that the health of people is closely connected to the health of animals and our shared environment. In the context of antimicrobial resistance, Ogunseitan envisions a cadre of One Health Antibiotic Stewards – trained and equipped with the knowledge and skills needed to disseminate critical infection prevention information – being deployed to high-risk areas as part of a global action plan.
The plan, Ogunseitan explains in his piece, would involve four pillars: Governance and Oversight, Surveillance and Data Availability; Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene; and Research and Development. Key to each of these pillars is our ability to empower One Health antibiotic stewards to engage in community-based strategies to improve antibiotic knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions.
“Clearly, bacterial antimicrobial resistance is an emergency jeopardizing population health, food security, and environmental quality,” Ogunseitan writes. “Proposed remediation strategies hinge on improving antibiotic stewardship through deeper knowledge, conservative attitudes, and preventive practices across agriculture, environmental, and human health sectors, demanding a quintessential One Health approach.”
Read the full text here.
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