The 20th century was a period of unprecedented ecological change, with dramatic reductions in natural ecosystems and biodiversity and equally dramatic increases in people and domestic animals. Never before have so many animals been kept by so many people—and never before have so many opportunities... existed for pathogens to pass from wild and domestic animals through the biophysical environment to affect people causing zoonotic diseases or zoonoses. The result has been a worldwide increase in emerging zoonotic
diseases, outbreaks of epidemic zoonoses as well as a rise in foodborne zoonoses globally, and a troubling persistence of neglected zoonotic diseases in poor countries.
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Policy Brief November 2021 Available in English, Spanish and Portuguese
The COVID-19 pandemic has fueled the ongoing antimicrobial resistance (AMR) global crisis due to the increase in the use of antibiotics to treat COVID-19 patients, disruptions to infection prevention and control practices in o...verwhelmed health systems, and diversion of human and financial resources away from monitoring and responding to AMR threats. Moreover, AMR is likely to have caused more COVID-19 deaths, as secondary bacterial infections can worsen the outcome of severe and critical COVID-19 illness. Therefore, it is more urgent than ever to prioritize efforts towards AMR containment and support countries to improve the detection, characterization and rapid response to emerging AMR.
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