Updates from the International Centre for Antimicrobial Resistance Solutions

On 6 March 2023, high-level delegates from the Ministry of Health in Zanzibar joined ICARS representatives and other local stakeholders to witness the signing ceremony. The Memorandum of Understanding between ICARS and Zanzibar facilitates the kick-off of an antimicrobial stewardship project and lays the foundations for future collaborative initiatives to tackle antimicrobial resistance.

ICARS is pleased to announce that we have selected The School of Public Health, University of the Western Cape in South Africa to undertake a new project to develop guidelines to facilitate Responsive Dialogues to tackle AMR in Low-and Middle-Income (LMIC) settings. Drawing on the lessons learnt from Responsive Dialogue pilots in Malawi, Thailand and Zambia, this newly announced project will build on the Responsive Dialogues Toolkit originally developed by Wellcome.

The workshop brought together stakeholders from the poultry sector in Benin, as well as those from the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries and researchers from the University of Abomey-Calavi, to develop a strategy to map actors in Benin’s poultry sector, with a focus on practices related to the use of antimicrobials. The event was chaired by Professor Nelly Kelome, Vice-Rector in charge of cooperation at the University of Abomey-Calavi.

After taking up his role as Executive Director on 1 April 2023, Sujith will travel to Washington DC to attend the World Bank Spring Meeting. At the meeting Sujith will participate in a ministerial roundtable on AMR hosted by the Danish Minister for Development Cooperation and Global Climate Policy, Dan Jørgensen. The roundtable will focus on accelerating One Health solutions to combat the "silent pandemic" of antimicrobial resistance to promote better human, animal and environmental health and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Learn more about Sujith and the experience he brings to ICARS by clicking the link below.

On 26 January 2023, Porkcolombia’s Executive Vice President and Director of Research and Technology visited ICARS headquarters to discuss our collaborative projects and scope out future initiatives. Our partnership with Porkcolombia, a guild representing the pork producers of Colombia, stretches back to 2021 when we launched our first project, co-funded by the UK Global AMR Innovation Fund (GAMRIF).

Members of the team implementing a project to reduce the use of antibiotic growth promoters (AGPs) on poultry farms in Georgia, visited laboratories, attended training, and met with the broader ICARS team to share their challenges and experiences of implementing the project so far and to discuss preliminary baseline results.

The 33rd European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) will take place as a hybrid event both online and in Copenhagen, Denmark from 15-18 April 2023. ICARS will be present at the conference and will facilitate a range of sessions to elevate voices from LMICs to the European and global dialogue. Follow the link below to learn more about ICARS' session at the congress.

On 23 March, ICARS co-hosted a collaborative policy and implementation webinar with the International Vaccine Institute (IVI) and The Embassy of Denmark to the Republic of Korea. The webinar aimed to catalyze wider policy and technical dialogues to scope out the added value of vaccines to support LMICs effort to tackle AMR and advance NAP implementation.

Are you a strategic communicator? Do you love translating complex ideas into accessible and eye-catching communications outputs? Are you experienced in creating website and social media content? Would you like to join a young institution motivated to make a positive global difference, mitigating antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in Low- and Middle-Income Countries? Then you might be our new Communications Officer. Deadline: 14 April, 23:59 CEST

Mitigating antimicrobial resistance using implementation research: a development funder's approach
Many countries have adopted AMR National Action Plans but implementation continues to lag. A new ICARS paper shows how implementation research provides a practical framework for executing evidence-based & sustainable AMR mitigation interventions.

A new study, funded by ICARS, screened day-old chicks imported from Belgium to Benin, revealing a high prevalence of resistant pathogenic bacteria. These pathogens could later contaminate local farms and transfer into the human food chain, with the possibility of causing health problems.