National Task force to look at Antimicrobial Resistance

“Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is the ability of a microorganism (like bacteria, viruses, and some parasites) to stop an antimicrobial (such as antibiotics, antivirals and antimalarials) from working against it. As a result, standard treatments become ineffective, infections persist and may spread to others,” according to the World Health Organisation’s website. The UN met on September 21 in New York to discuss the threat of AMR to societies.

In a UN release on the matter, it said, “Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has become one of the biggest threats to global health and endangers other major priorities, such as human development. All around the world, many common infections are becoming resistant to the antimicrobial medicines used to treat them, resulting in longer illnesses and more deaths.

At the same time, not enough new antimicrobial drugs, especially antibiotics, are being developed to replace older and increasingly ineffective ones.” In response to questions posed by Newsday on the matter, the Ministry said, “The Chemistry, Food and Drugs Division of the Ministry of Health is the local regulatory and standards monitoring agency that monitors all aspects of the importation, manufacture, storage, distribution, sale, fraud and deception in labeling and marketing, and disposal of food and drugs. Any person or business wishing to import, manufacture or sell food in Trinidad and Tobago must have it inspected and approved by the Division and this process ensures the quality, purity and safety of food consumed in Trinidad and Tobago.”

It said further, “The World Health Organisation has recognised the issue of antimicrobial (antibiotic) resistance (AMR) as one of global concern and Trinidad and Tobago has been keen to take note of this. The overabundance of antimicrobials (antibiotics) in any food can reduce the effectiveness of disease treatment and threatens the success of life saving medical procedures such as chemotherapy, major surgeries and organ transplants.” The Ministry added that a baseline survey will be conducted by the Veterinary Public Health Unit of the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Agriculture, Land and Fisheries and in collaboration with Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA on the prevalence of Salmonella spp. and its antimicrobial resistance profile in retail poultry meat. On September 22 a CNN report posed the question whether there were too many antibiotics in fast food meat. The article referred to informationfrom a report called Chain Reaction II which noted that 16 of the top 25 fast food chains “have taken no action to reduce use of antibiotics in their supply chains” and received grades of F.