Results for Western Pacific

As a doctor and surgeon in Tonga, I visited provincial hospitals and saw patients battling infections that no longer responded to the medicines we relied on. I remember a young child brought in with sepsis. We tried every antibiotic available, but nothing worked. Unfortunately, the child did not survive. That moment has stayed with me as a constant reminder that antimicrobials are precious, fragile tools in a physician’s arsenal - tools we are in danger of losing. The pandemic of antimicrobial resistance – or AMR - isn’t a science-fiction scenario. In many ways, it’s already here. - by Dr Saia Ma’u Piukala.