APO funds research to explore effect of AMR actions plans

A research consortium including Duke Kunshan faculty Ben Anderson and Annemieke van den Dool has received US$60,000 in funding from the World Health Organization’s Asia-Pacific Observatory on Health Systems and Policies (APO) to investigate the impact of national policies on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in Asia.

Several countries have adopted national action plans to tackle the main contributing factors, including the misuse and abuse of antimicrobials in human medicine and livestock farming, and improper storage and disposal. However, research on the impact of intervention polices is limited.

To fill the information gap, the APO is funding a two-year study to look at how policymakers’ perception of AMR has affected regulation on the use of antimicrobials in Bangladesh, Cambodia, the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong, Singapore, and the Philippines.