By Victoria Rutter, CEO of the Commonwealth Pharmacists Association (CPA) and a member of the Commonwealth Advisory Health Committee. CPA is a Commonwealth-accredited organisation.
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is one of the most pressing global health threats of the 21st century. Nearly 40 million people could lose their lives to AMR infections over the next 25 years, with the heaviest toll expected in lower-to-middle income countries, many of them in the Commonwealth. In the past decade, projected AMR-related deaths by 2050 have quadrupled, underscoring the urgency of the crisis. If AMR were a war, it would rival the deadliest in history. It demands innovative, coordinated responses.
Photo: Commonwealth Partnerships for Antimicrobial Stewardship programme, Malawi
Pharmacists on the frontline
Pharmacists play a critical, often under-recognised role in addressing AMR. Beyond dispensing medicine, pharmacists are integral to antimicrobial research, the development of prescribing guidelines, the tailoring of treatments, and the safe administration of antibiotics in hospitals and communities.
From researching new drugs, to crafting guidelines and encouraging best practices in antibiotic prescribing, to tailoring therapies and managing administration in the community or hospitals, pharmacists are involved at every stage of the creation, usage and monitoring of antimicrobials.
The Commonwealth Pharmacists Association (CPA), a Commonwealth-accredited organisation, has served as the voice of the pharmacy profession in the Commonwealth since 1969. In response to the rising threat posed by AMR, our organisation has also taken a leading role in empowering pharmacists to lead the fight against AMR - a role we have realised by harnessing the power of partnership.
Pioneering improvement through partnership
Our Commonwealth Partnerships for Antimicrobial Stewardship (CwPAMS), funded by the UK Department for Health and Social Care’s Fleming Fund and delivered alongside Global Health Partnerships (GHP), is an example of a programme CPA has pioneered that offers a model for how other international health interventions can work based on a partnership approach.
CwPAMS builds structured multidisciplinary pharmacist-led partnerships between UK hospital teams and their counterparts in more than half a dozen African countries including Ghana, Nigeria, Malawi, Uganda and Zambia, facilitating sustainable exchanges of skills and knowledge focused on promoting proper use of antimicrobials, infection prevention control. This approach aligns with the 2024 CHOGM mandate, which urges increased global and national efforts to tackle AMR.
Within participating countries, local ‘hub and spoke’ partnerships are also developed between experienced participating health institutions (‘hubs’) and other sites wishing to learn from them (‘spokes’). More than 6,000 African healthcare professionals and the communities they serve have benefited from CwPAMS to date.
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Advocating for better public policy
As well as delivering on the ground to change lives and transform healthcare for communities, CPA advocates globally for public policy changes that support the fight against AMR, directly (through support for schemes like CwPAMS) or indirectly (for example by lobbying for global supply chains to ensure availability and quality of both antimicrobials and diagnostic testing supplies).
Here, we also harness the power of international and interdisciplinary partnerships. CPA collaborates closely with Commonwealth Accredited Organisations for various health and social care professions to achieve our aims.
Together, we form the Commonwealth Health Professions and Partnerships Alliance (CHPA) - which CPA holds the Chair of for the next two years - bringing pharmacists together with doctors, nurses, social workers and various specialist groups to advocate for policy changes to tackle global health threats to our Commonwealth like AMR. CHPHA unites health professionals—pharmacists, doctors, nurses, social workers, and others—to speak with one voice at the annual Commonwealth Health Ministers Meeting.
As we look to 37CHMM this May, healthcare professionals across the Commonwealth hope for a renewed commitment to sustainable investment aimed at strengthening national capacities for prevention, surveillance, innovation, and response, particularly in addressing AMR.
This investment is crucial for developing robust healthcare systems that can effectively tackle emerging health challenges and ensure the well-being and economic security of communities.
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