Islamabad: Widespread use of antibiotics in kilograms rather than doses in Pakistan’s livestock and poultry sectors, combined with self-medication by patients, is accelerating antimicrobial resistance and could even lead to future travel restrictions on Pakistanis due to the spread of dangerous superbugs, health experts warned on Tuesday.
Speaking at a high-level policy dialogue on Antimicrobial Resistance and the One Health approach, Vice Chancellor of the Health Services Academy Shahzad Ali Khan said Pakistan would continue to lose the fight against drug resistant infections unless antibiotic use at the farm level was brought under strict regulation.
He warned that the emergence of highly resistant infections such as XDR typhoid had already damaged Pakistan’s global health image and could result in travel bans if the trend continued.
He said focusing only on human prescriptions while ignoring massive antibiotic use in livestock and poultry would ensure failure, adding that effective control of AMR required joint action by doctors, veterinarians, environmental experts and regulators.
Prof Shahzad Ali Khan said the Health Services Academy had begun operationalising the One Health framework by training master trainers, developing a formal One Health curriculum and initiating structured policy dialogue with livestock, poultry, agriculture and environment sectors. He stressed that One Health was a governance model recognising the interconnectedness of human, animal and environmental health.
Federal Health Minister Syed Mustafa Kamal described antimicrobial resistance as a national security and economic threat, warning that unchecked misuse of antibiotics could weaken Pakistan’s economy, defence and overall stability. He said crises such as Covid-19 had shown how quickly health systems could collapse, making prevention and regulation a national priority.
The health minister praised the Health Services Academy for helping reshape Pakistan’s health system from a narrow focus on treating illness towards a stronger emphasis on prevention, health promotion and long-term public health resilience.
Presenting global and national data, National Coordinator One Health Tariq Mahmood Ali said AMR was no longer a future risk but a present day emergency.
He cited estimates showing bacterial AMR directly caused about 1.27 million deaths in 2019 and was linked to nearly five million deaths overall, with around 20 percent occurring among children under five, warning cumulative deaths could exceed 39 million worldwide by 2050.
He said AMR could reduce global GDP by up to $3.4 trillion annually by 2030, while treatment of drug resistant infections alone could cost more than $400 billion a year by 2035, with low and middle income countries such as Pakistan bearing the heaviest burden.
Focusing on Pakistan, he said around 60 percent of prescribed medicines are antibiotics and resistance in common pathogens such as E. coli and salmonella has crossed 50 percent in several settings.
He added that globally 70 to 80 percent of antimicrobials are used in food producing animals and warned that continued use of critical drugs such as colistin in Pakistan’s poultry and livestock threatens human health, food security and rural livelihoods.
Outlining the regulatory response, DRAP Chief Executive Officer Obaidullah said new legislation had been prepared to end over the counter antibiotic sales, making prescriptions mandatory.
He said Watch and Reserve group antibiotics would face tighter controls and could only be prescribed by consultants, while ICU specific antibiotics would be restricted to hospital pharmacies.
Participants agreed that antimicrobial resistance could not be tackled by the health sector alone and stressed the need for full implementation of the National Action Plan on AMR, stronger surveillance across human and animal health and coordinated regulation from farm to pharmacy, warning Pakistan has only a narrow window left to act before routine infections become untreatable.
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