International organizations commit to cooperate in preventing antibiotic resistance in Vietnam

Using antibiotics safely is a national task

On July 26, the multidisciplinary technical working group on antibiotic resistance under the One Health Partnership on zoonotic disease prevention holds its annual meeting. Dr. Nguyen Thu Thuy, Deputy Director of the Department of Animal Health (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development) and Professor Robyn Alder, Global Health Security Program, Chatham House, UK co-chaired the conference.

Speaking at the meeting, Dr. Nguyen Thu Thuy emphasized the importance of antibiotic resistance content in the One Health multi-sectoral partnership framework for the period 2021 - 2025 on "strengthening management and monitoring of antibiotic use and preventing antibiotic resistance". The multidisciplinary Antimicrobial Resistance Working Group is one of the good mechanisms to realize national laws and action plans on drug resistance prevention in health, environment and agriculture.

Accordingly, multilateral cooperation on managing, monitoring and preventing antibiotic resistance is necessary for any country, especially when Vietnam is classified by the World Health Organization as one of the countries with the highest rate of antibiotic resistance in the world.

The Prime Minister has also just approved Decision No. 1121/QD-TTg "National Strategy on drug resistance prevention and control in Vietnam for the period 2023 - 2030, vision to 2045", which clearly stipulates the goals and tasks of managing, monitoring and controlling antibiotic resistance as well as applying the One Health approach. From there, Vietnam aims to basically control the situation of drug resistance by 2045, and has a system to monitor drug resistance, use and consumption of antibiotics.

This strategy clearly states: "Preventing drug resistance is an urgent, regular, long-term task and the core responsibility of the health sector and agriculture sector. It is necessary to proactively prevent infectious diseases, control infections, improve capacity to prevent, detect, diagnose, treat and monitor drug resistance, use and consumption of antimicrobial drugs in humans and animals”.

From there, the strategy sets out specific goals including raising awareness of local authorities at all levels, understanding of medical staff, veterinarians and people about preventing and combating drug resistance; strengthen the drug resistance monitoring system to promptly warn about the emergence, spread, level, and trend of drug resistance of microorganisms; reduce the spread of microorganisms and infectious diseases; use antimicrobial drugs in humans and animals appropriately, safely and responsibly.

International organizations share responsibility for antibiotic resistance prevention with Vietnam

To well implement this strategy, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development continues to mobilize all resources to implement the "National Action Plan on antibiotic resistance prevention and control in the agricultural sector for the period 2021-2025", approved in Decision No. 3609/QD-BNN-TY dated August 23, 2021.

According to Mrs. Robyn Alder - Representative of Chatham House, UK, antibiotic resistance is one of the health risks being managed by the Vietnamese Government. Therefore, it is necessary to utilize resources, multi-sectoral coordination in antibiotic management policies and act together to achieve integrated results. This is also a content that the UKRI GCRF One Health Poultry Center supports Vietnam University of Agriculture in conducting an assessment and review of antibiotic resistance policy in Vietnam.

Professor Robyn Alder said that Vietnam is considered one of the countries with a fairly comprehensive regulatory system on antibiotic resistance and has an early national action plan on antibiotic resistance compared to other countries. Enforcement is an urgent task, so it is necessary to mobilize and invest resources to implement regulations on antibiotic resistance.

"Therefore, international development partners affirm that they share responsibility for antibiotic resistance prevention with the Government of Vietnam and continue to commit to supporting resources" said a representative of Chatham House.

Agreeing with this opinion, international delegates commented that regulations on antibiotic resistance in Vietnam still have many shortcomings, especially in the provision of antibiotics in medicine and veterinary medicine; supply of medical and veterinary antibiotics; antibiotic use monitoring system, etc. Therefore, all levels and sectors in Vietnam need to strengthen coordination with each other in the prevention and control of antibiotic resistance.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the two Ministries co-chairing the One Health Partnership Framework have coordinated and pledged to perform well their coordinating role, creating forums to share research results, lessons, practical experience in international and national antibiotic resistance activities and programs. At the same time, connect domestic stakeholders and international development partners to listen to actual needs from Vietnamese government agencies, provide technical assistance or allocate resources appropriate to the situation and conditions of Vietnam.

Collaboration to prevent antibiotic resistance needs to be based on a One Health approach, because humans, animals, plants and the environment are interconnected at the global, regional, national, and industry levels.