The session was chaired by Peter Beyer, Senior Advisor of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Switzerland. He started his introduction about a resistant bacterium which infected 75 people among the 17 different hospitals in Tuscany. Most of the patients went to septic shock and 31 of them died. This infection started in New Delhi, India in 2008.

The UN Interagency Coordination Group (IACG) recommends establishing a One Health Global Leadership Group on Antimicrobial Resistance whose purpose is to provide advocacy and advisory functions to ensure that action is taken to address the challenge of antimicrobial resistance, monitoring and reporting the progress on the global vision and goals of AMR under the global action plan and lastly, giving advice and guidance on reporting evidence for combating AMR. Peter also mentioned that evidence-based practice on AMR plays an important role for evaluations of new findings and possible impacts and risks in the future.

Prof. Dr Lothar Wieler, President of the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin explained the impacts of AMR on humans and animals. When inducing antibiotic to a bacterium, it also enriches the resistance then spreads to another individual and the environment. AMR is called a silent epidemic yet a global problem. The problem with AMR is that it is 100% caused by humans therefore, only humans can solve it by taking responsibility, education and technical solutions.

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Julia Spencer, Associate Vice President for Global Vaccines Public Policy at Merck, mentioned the significant role of vaccines to promote slow resistance to both direct and indirect infections. There are 700,000 deaths from AMR per year and one of the strategies to avoid AMR is vaccination. Vaccines are less costly rather than using antibiotics for treatment.

Elmar Nimmesgren from Global AMR R&D Hub in Germany explained the development of new vaccines. He also explained the challenges/limitations in the clinical development due to limited mechanism of action in the molecules. These molecules are sent for testing for its efficacy and toxicity. Another challenge is the little financial incentive in the market due to the number of competitions.

Felicitas Riedl from European Investment Bank enumerated the selection criteria for funding AMR clinical trials: eligibility for financing, there should be a 10-year timeframe, probability of revenues in the market. These criteria make clinical trials effective and less costly. The speakers mentioned the challenges in implementing the goals on combating AMR due to lack of action and disseminating information worldwide especially in low-income countries. However, there are success stories in some countries since they are making policies in controlling prescriptions of antibiotics.

Before the session ended, the huge impact of Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) was emphasized. IPC is a cost-effective measure to avoid hospitalization and usage of too much antibiotics. There is a need for political will in terms of antibiotics usage especially to those who can easily access antibiotics.

Nurses also play an important role when it comes to infection prevention and control. As front liners in the healthcare setting, nurses are responsible for preventing the spread of infectious diseases and as the most trusted healthcare personnel, it is the nurses' key role to educate their patients or the people in every community about the importance of hand hygiene, immunizations and health screening. Up to this date, the developing countries still have easy access to antibiotics, and it is their role to educate the patients on the consequences of using antibiotics frequently especially without prescriptions. It is also important that nurses have easy access to protocols, findings, and regulations in AMR.

Yearly, more than half a million people die from AMR and the mortality rate is expected to increase as years pass by. Infection prevention and control is the key to stopping the spread of AMR. Therefore, healthcare professionals must be well-informed or trained to be able to get the latest updates about antibiotics and antimicrobial resistance so that they will be able to spread the information and educate the people about using antibiotics and its consequences. Evidence-based practice on AMR should also be implemented mandatorily and be utilized in the health care settings. Nurses are encouraged to participate in clinical trials, gathering useful data, and conducting lectures to the community about AMR.