Sustainable antimicrobial resistance surveillance: time for a global funding mechanism

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is predicted to surpass malaria, HIV, and tuberculosis as the leading infectious cause of death by 2050. The WHO Global Action Plan aims to strengthen knowledge and evidence base for AMR through surveillance and research. However, sustained funding support is crucial in low-resource settings. The costs of a standard national AMR surveillance system in LMICs are estimated to account for over 2% of their total domestic general government health expenditure, making it unsustainable without a long-term global financing mechanism.