In locations with high rates of drug-resistant illnesses and communities most impacted by rising infectious diseases, a new worldwide research collaboration is being formed to battle antimicrobial resistance in people.

The new endeavor will enhance antimicrobial clinical decision-making and educate prescriber, user, and policymakers on practices and recommendations.

According to an April 27 University of Liverpool press release, researchers will learn how to optimize antibiotic usage, enhance access to appropriate therapy, and better prevent and treat bacterial infections.

Uganda’s Infectious Diseases Institute will be a global centre for antibacterial optimization.

The Centres for Antimicrobial Optimisation Network (CAMO-Net) has brought together research teams from the Infectious Diseases Institute in Uganda, the University of Cape Town, the Faculty of Medicine at the University of São Paulo, and Liverpool and Imperial College London in the UK to address the global health impact of antimicrobial resistance.

“Our participation in the CAMO-Net grant is a historic opportunity to advance knowledge and reduce regional antimicrobial resistance.

“We are keen to leverage our 20-year experience in combatting and studying infectious diseases in Africa to influence leadership and empower the rising generation of scientists in the Global South,” said Uganda’s Infectious illnesses Institute executive director Andrew Kambugu.

Global risk

Antibiotics have saved millions of lives for decades, but drug-resistant diseases are now one of the major global health problems.

Antibiotic usage and bacterial resistance have been widely investigated. “Antibiotics become obsolete as resistance develops,” stated Prof. Anna Levin of the University of São Paulo Faculty of Medicine. If we want antibiotics to last longer, we must enhance their usage.

The project will examine how improving community antibiotic usage may affect antimicrobial resistance in patients, health professionals, and wastewater and drinking water.

Four centres with complementing transdisciplinary research skills were chosen.
Three shadow national locations will trial CAMO-Net.

Dow University of Health Sciences in Pakistan, Child Health Research Foundation in Bangladesh, and Universidade da Paz in Timor-Leste are the venues.

Knowledge creation

“The network will harness the power of data through strategic and targeted studies to generate new knowledge, implement co-produced, contextually fit, and sustainable solutions to optimise antimicrobial use, and evaluate these interventions and strategies using an intersectional approach,” the press release stated.

“Antibiotics have saved millions of lives for decades, but their efficacy is under increasing pressure. Our CAMO-Net grant will support research that improves their efficacy in local contexts with the greatest drug-resistant illness rates.

“This will help guide more effective and tailored interventions from policymakers and prescribers, ensuring patients can continue to benefit from these lifesaving medicines into the future,” said Timothy Jinks, head of Infectious Disease Interventions at Wellcome.