TGHN Conference:

The Global Health Network (TGHN) celebrates 10 years of mobilising research skills, know-how and methods to foster capable teams that generate new treatment strategies and prevention mechanisms that reduce the burden of disease within communities. The antimicrobial resistance (AMR) symposium is one of many preceding the main event which is a TGHN conference. The conference runs on 24 and 25 November 2022, with several symposia taking place on November 22 and 23 2022. 

The aim of this conference is to present research findings, and methods and processes, so we can learn from these to better enable research in every healthcare setting. An embedded theme of this conference is exploring equity in where research happens, who leads and who benefits. The purpose is to learn from each other and share excellence in approaches, processes, and methods. This also includes ensuring there is equitable access, representation, and participation at this conference. This conference will be a fantastic opportunity to learn from researchers working across different disease areas, geographies, and disciplines. The conference is organised on a not-for-profit basis. Every delegate who can pay to attend will be supporting a delegate who would otherwise not be able to attend through the Scholarship Award. More information on the conference themes and programme are available via the main conference website.

AMR Symposium Synopsis:

Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) is an ongoing silent pandemic,(1) exacerbated in part by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. (2,3)The recently published global burden of bacterial antimicrobial resistance (4) published in The Lancet in January 2022, estimates that based on available evidence in 2019, over 4.95 million deaths globally were associated with drug-resistant infections and 1.27 million deaths were directly caused by drug-resistant organisms. While bacterial AMR was found to be a problem in all regions; the global burden of disease estimates show that the highest burden of AMR is in low and middle-income countries, particularly in the Sub-Saharan African region. (4) The review highlights the paucity of high-quality data in low-income settings and the importance of targeted AMR policies. (4) Specifically the review underscores the need to address various barriers to improved AMR data quality and surveillance efforts, expansion of stewardship initiatives, and barriers to access to new therapeutics and vaccines as well as the need for research and development.

A holistic approach is needed to tackle AMR and eliminate the threat of AMR.(5) Using a one health whole of society approach similar to other pandemics like COVID-19 has been advocated as our best line of defence. The symposium aims to bring together practitioners, researchers, funders and policymakers. Bearing in mind that, while research and development (R&D) are key, new drugs and new vaccines are not produced fast enough to cope with the growing threat of AMR. Additionally, LMICs are less likely to be at the cusp of R&D due in part to a lack of facilities and while many initiatives are addressing AMR there is no systematic data collection. This symposium will therefore focus on implementation and operational research and will seek to drive the embedding of research within systems to improve data, implementation and translation to policy. The objective would be to call for further investment of funding for operational and implementation research as a vital component in tackling AMR with a One Health approach. 

The focal areas for the symposium will be the three core one health areas i.e. human health, animal health and environmental health. The symposium will provide a platform for open discussion with an overview of AMR in the one health context, experiences from the field and to identify what more needs to be done, validate or reality check one health priority areas and highlight how these can be addressed and implemented in the field allowing for translation into policy using a bottom-top approach. Additionally, the symposium would provide a platform to discuss how best to define a One Health research question and how to support genuine interdisciplinary research in this area. Two main outputs from the symposium will be a position paper and working groups to foster both north-south and south-south research collaborations to address AMR one health priorities.