Are you aware of the topic of antimicrobial resistance (AMR)? Briefly explained, AMR occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites change over time and no longer respond to medicines intended to treat them. This makes infections harder to treat and common antimicrobials (e.g. antibiotics) that we are familiar with become ineffective. AMR occurs naturally over time, but it has been accelerated through misuse and overuse of antimicrobials. The World Health Organization has declared that AMR is one of the top 10 global public health threats facing humanity.
At Sysmex, we’ve been working on awareness campaigns on this topic since 2019, focusing activities around the World Antimicrobial Awareness Week in November. This year, we wanted to have an aligned global approach with all of our regional headquarters (Americas, Asia Pacific, Japan, EMEA) for maximum impact and internationality in our awareness activities.
Our idea to do this was to create a global video campaign, consisting of nine micro-stories based in areas across the globe under the tagline ‘Discover the fighter in you’. The intention of this message is that we want to encourage people that there are small, everyday actions they can take to fight the development of AMR. This can include proper hand hygiene, finishing a full course of antibiotics when they have been prescribed, preparing food hygienically, not taking antimicrobials without consulting a medical professional, etc. We wanted to show that it’s simple to start being an AMR fighter and these small changes could help make a big difference.
Our CEO and President of Sysmex EMEA, Alain Baverel, had this to say about the topic and initiative: “Antimicrobial resistance is not just a huge issue in the healthcare industry – it affects all of us. The topic is a long-haul concern and awareness needs to be reached at all levels so we can tackle it with full force. At Sysmex, we are keeping a close eye on innovative technologies to be able to fight the development of antimicrobial resistance from a diagnostic perspective.”
And Senior Executive Officer and Head of Marketing, Jan-Willem Schipper, shared this about our awareness activities: “Awareness of a threat is the first and most crucial step in addressing it. Since 2019, we have been working to raise the awareness of antimicrobial resistance, and the real challenge is to reach the general public with fact-based knowledge and engage them to comply with simple but important actions to support the combat of AMR.”
You can find our website here, including the nine micro-stories: www.sysmex-europe.com/amr
