The 33rd European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) will take place as a hybrid event both online and in Copenhagen, Denmark from 15-18 April 2023. As a gathering of more than 15,000 participants from around the world, the conference provides an important platform to advocate for closer partnerships across borders and beyond Europe to include Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) in their efforts to prevent and mitigate infectious diseases including AMR.
ICARS will be present at the conference and facilitate a range of sessions to elevate voices from LMICs to the European and global dialogue. For delegates attending the congress, we have included below some sessions where ICARS projects and team members will be participating from the extensive online programme.
Sessions facilitated or co-developed by ICARS:
What can be learned from successful vertical programmes to mitigate AMR?
1-hour Symposium
Sunday 16 April, 11:00 – 12:00, Hall E
Co-chairs: Haileyesus Getahun (WHO, Switzerland) and Jyoti Joshi (ICARS, Denmark)
- Speaker: Claudia Denkinger (Heidelberg University, Germany) – How to leverage experiences from TB/HIV to combat AMR
- Speaker: Kitty van Weezenbeek, (WHO, Switzerland) – Successful approaches to integrate AMR in existing public health programmes
Public health practices and programmes have long been focused on a single disease (TB, HIV, Malaria) or priority areas (mother and child health, vaccines). Recent studies indicate that antimicrobial resistance led to more than a million deaths in 2019, much more than HIV or TB. This cross-cutting real-world challenge across geography and demography needs an urgent response. The targeted platforms for delivery of health services at the country level are a missed opportunity for leveraging the limited existing resources to address cognate health imperatives such as AMR. Global and national action plans on AMR announced in 2015, remain orphans with limited integration into public health systems. This gap needs to be plugged by repurposing or expanding existing platforms & resources of public health systems.
How to incorporate gender in AMR
Meet-the-expert
Monday 17 April, 11:00 – 12:00, Hall O
Speakers: Esmita Charani (Imperial College London, United Kingdom) and Mirfin Mpundu (ICARS, Zambia) including an introduction from ICARS and IDRC.
Integrating a gender lens is a prerequisite for quality public health research and the significance of cuts across human, animal, and environmental health. Gender and its intersections with other socio-behavioral factors shape the emergence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and influence who can access, use, and benefit from antimicrobials. There is, however, limited evidence addressing the impact of gender-related inequalities on AMR or antimicrobial use nor a compendium of best practices to incorporate a gender lens in AMR research. Available studies focus on physiological differences based on sex rather than socially constructed differences based on gender, and current research designs are often gender blind.
A gender lens supports the quality, credibility and relevance of AMR research and ultimately increases the impact and sustainability of interventions in real-world scenarios. This session offers guidance on incorporating a gender lens across the AMR research-intervention continuum.
Scaling up AMR interventions with stakeholders: diversity, equity, and inclusion
2-hour Educational Workshop
Monday 17 April, 16:15 – 18:15, Hall O
Co-chairs: Martha Gyansa-Lutterodt (Ghana), Philip Mathew (Switzerland)
Speakers:
- Ramanan Laxminarayan (United States) – Scalable AMR interventions: what we know and what we need to know
- Robinson Mdgela (ICARS project lead, Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania) –Making all stakeholders work together to move where it matters the most
- Marcela Rodriguez (previously engaged in ICARS project, Porkcolombia, Colombia) – Public-private alliances to implement One Health in the fight against the antimicrobial resistance in Colombia
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) mitigation occurs across the intervention-implementation research (IIR) continuum. This begins with the proof-of-concept that an AMR intervention works within a controlled setting, followed by proof-of-implementation in the real-life setting. The process should be adapted to specific local contexts and early engagement and ownership by all stakeholders is critical to systems wide scale-up. Following the IIR continuum can substantially advance the implementation of National Action Plans on AMR in resource-constrained settings. This workshop focuses on the targeted integration and scale-up of AMR interventions with a focus on stakeholder engagement. Using a case study approach, panellists will debate and provide experiential learning to enable participants to identify and facilitate conversations towards a common AMR mitigation goal amongst diverse stakeholders with different mandates.
