Dear All,
Your vote counts! The UN’s Inter-Agency and Expert Group on Sustainable Development Goal Indicators (IAEG-SDGs) is conducting an open consultation on proposals it is considering including in the 2020 Comprehensive Review and is seeking the global community’s comments on these proposals (link to summary web page).
The 17 SDGs were adopted in 2015 and are really driving change on a global level — read more about them here if you are interested. In brief, the SDGs are big ideas (e.g., SDG #3 is “Good Health and Well-Being”). Progress towards each SDG is measured by use of targets and indicators (e.g., Target 3.1 is “By 2030, reduce the global maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 per 100,000 live births” and it has linked indicators 3.1.1 of “Maternal mortality ratio” and 3.1.2 of “Proportion of births attended by skilled health personnel.”
The IAEG had previously launched a call for additional indicators. The list of proposed additional indicators included in this open consultation (link) is a sub-set of all proposals received.
Relevant to this community, SDG #3 has Target 3.D that reads “Strengthen the capacity of all countries, in particular developing countries, for early warning, risk reduction and management of national and global health risks.” Excitingly, we now have a proposed indicator 3.d for SDG #3 that would be focused on AMR: “Reduce the percentage of bloodstream infections due to selected antimicrobial-resistant organisms.” To find it in the .pdf at the link just above, search for “resistant”.
On a global basis, this is a great indicator as it would help (a) drive effective laboratory capacity, (b) encourage use of appropriate therapy, (c) encourage use of good infection prevention, and (d) by these improvements help reduce the frequency of resistant infections.
Your mission today is to vote in support of this indicator! To do this, take these steps:
- Go to the IAEG-SDG consultation web page at this link.
- Scroll to the bottom and click on “NEXT.”
- On the form that appears, provide your details.
- At the bottom of that form, you’ll see this question “What section do you want to go to next?”
- Select Goal 3 and click on “NEXT”
- Scroll down to indicator 3.d.1, select YES, and add any comments you might have (e.g., borrow some of my text from above, mention the use of % of countries having a national action plan as another indicator, etc.)
- At the bottom of that form, you’ll again see this question “What section do you want to go to next?”
- Do look at the other candidate indicators. Perhaps there are others where you have an opinion!
- Once you’re done, go again to “What section next?”, choose “Submit Form”, and click NEXT.
- Click SUBMIT on the final form.
Great to see this! The poll is open until 8 September, but there’s no time like the present. Please register your support for the indicator today!
All best wishes, –jr
John H. Rex, MD | Chief Medical Officer, F2G Ltd. | Expert-in-Residence, Wellcome Trust. Follow me on Twitter: @JohnRex_NewAbx. See past newsletters and subscribe for the future: https://13.43.35.2/blog/
Upcoming meetings of interest to the AMR community:
- 20 Aug 2019 (webinar, 17:00-18:30 CEST): REVIVE webinar entitled “Models for antimicrobial R&D: Computational modelling for population PK and PKPD.” Go here to register.
- [Mark your calendar now!] 3-6 Sep 2019 (Boston). Annual ASM-ESCMID Conference on Antibiotic Development. The Bootcamp series will continue on 3 Sep with main meeting on 4-6 Sep. Mark your calendar now and check back here for details.
- 6 Sep 2019 (Cambridge): CeBIL Annual Symposium 2019: Legal Innovation to Support the Development of Anti-Microbial Drugs. For more details and to register, go here.
- 6-8 Sep 2019 (Bilbao, Spain): 5th ESCMID conference on Vaccines. Check back here for details.
- 10 Sep 2019 (webinar, 17:00-18:30 CEST): REVIVE webinar entitled “Models for antimicrobial R&D: Advanced and complex in vivo models for infectious disease research.” Go here to register.
- 3 Oct 2019 (webinar, 17:00-18:30 CEST): REVIVE webinar entitled “Natural product antibiotics: from traditional screening to novel discovery approaches.” Go here to register.
- 2-6 Oct 2019 (Washington, DC): IDSA’s annual IDWeek meeting.
- 19-27 Oct 2019 (Annecy, France): International Course on Antibiotics and Resistance (ICARe) – A soup-to-nuts intensive residential training program on all things AMR, especially R&D for new antibiotics. See this link for details.
- [NEW] 19 Nov 2019 (London): BSAC seminar entitled “Into clinical practice: Meeting the challenges of Gram-negative infection management”. A one-day conference on treatments for Gram-negative infections. Go here for details.
- [NEW] 28-29 Nov 2019 (Birmingham, UK): BSAC workshop entitled “ARM (Antibiotic Resistance & Mechanisms)”. This meeting is a research forum for UK-based researchers at all levels, including PhD students and technicians. Go here for details.
- 16-18 Dec 2019 (Bangkok, Thailand): 3rd International Symposium on Alternatives to Antibiotics in Animal Production. Go here for details: https://www.ars.usda.gov/alternativestoantibiotics/
- [NEW] 21 Jan 2020 (London): BSAC’s 2nd Antimicrobial Chemotherapy Conference – An ABC for everyone involved in developing new antimicrobials. Go here for details.
- 1-6 Mar 2020 (Il Ciocco, Tuscany, Italy): GRC on Antibacterial Discovery and Development: “Now is the time to re-boot antibiotic R&D before it’s too little, too late.” Go here for details.
- 12-13 Mar 2020 (Berlin?): BEAM-, Novo REPAIR-, CARB-X-, DZIF-, ND4BB-, ENABLE-supported (among a long list!) Conference on Novel Antimicrobials and AMR Diagnostics. Final location is TBD, details will appear here, and you should mark your calendar now.
- 16-17 Mar 2020 (London): BSAC Spring Conference entitled: “Bridging the gap between science, policy and effective antimicrobial use.” Go here for details.
- 18-21 Apr 2020 (Paris): Annual ECCMID meeting (#30)
- 25-30 May 2020 (Rotterdam), Annual ESPID meeting (European Society for Pediatric ID, #38)
- 10-13 Apr 2021 (Vienna): Annual ECCMID meeting (#31)