The Ministry of Agro-Industry and Food Security in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) is organising a one-week workshop which opened, today, at the Hilton Mauritius Resort and Spa, in Flic en Flac, on the theme “National Situation and Surveillance System Assessment on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) and Antimicrobial Use (AMU) in Mauritius”.
The Attorney General, Minister of Agro-Industry and Food Security, Mr Maneesh Gobin, the World Health Organization (WHO) Representative to Mauritius, Dr Laurent Musango, the Director, Health Services of the Ministry of Health and Wellness, Dr Beerdarshansingh Caussy, and other personalities were present at the opening of the workshop.
The objective of this national workshop is to evaluate the implementation of the AMR-NAP (National Action Plan) and the various AMR activities using the Progressive Management Pathway (PMP) tool as well as to support Mauritius in formulating the short and medium-term actions to be taken to improve implementation of the AMR-NAP.
The workshop will target some 40 participants and stakeholders representative in AMR management from public/human health, animal health and production, environmental and plant health, agricultural production, food safety, research and education sectors, the private and Technical and Financial Partners.
In his address, Minister Gobin highlighted that ensuring Food Security in the country is one of the priorities envisioned by His Ministry so as to be more competitive and sustainable.
He underlined that with the ongoing challenges that the world is facing, notably through the COVID-19 pandemic and the War between Russia and Ukraine, it is essential to reduce the consequential impacts on the national food security level by encouraging self-sufficiency in those agricultural products where it is possible.
The Agro-Industry Minister further appealed to the participants of the workshop to ponder over how, as stakeholders, they can bring meaningful changes in the lives of the population, in particular the ones who are producing our food. “I hope that after these five days of discussions in this functional working group, functional solutions that will encompass several areas, not only agriculture, but also fisheries and our Outer islands production, will be brought forward,” he indicated.
For his part, Dr Musango highlighted that Mauritius was the first among African member states to adopt the approach of One Health, an approach to designing and implementing programmes, policies, legislation and research in which multiple sectors communicate and work together to achieve better public health outcomes, and the NAP in 2017 in a bid to address antimicrobial resistance and other health issues that arise from the interaction between humans and animals.
He lauded the FAO’s initiative of PMP on AMR to help countries in assessing and taking concrete steps to effectively combat AMR with a focus on the food and agricultural sectors. On this score, he encouraged the three organisations, notably the WHO, FAO and the World Organisation for Animal Health, at the level of member states and international agencies, to work in a collaborative manner to address gaps and generate more global coherence in the use of antimicrobials.
As for Dr Caussy, he indicated that the Mauritian NAP on AMR 2017-2021 has as goal to promote and ensure the prudent and judicious use of antimicrobials in the human and agricultural sectors with emphasis on the promotion of Infection Prevention and Control.
The Director added that in 2021, surveillance of multi-drug resistant organisms in the Intensive Care Units of public hospitals started as well as a bundle of care for the prevention of AMR has also been developed in 2022 and is currently ongoing. A NAP on Infection Prevention and Control is being drafted this year so as to address additional issues surrounding AMR and AMU in Mauritius, he concluded.
