“The African Academy of Sciences and the South African Medical Research Council tackle antimicrobial resistance in Africa”

“The African Academy of Sciences (AAS) and the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) today announced an investment of $2 million to fund research into understanding the burden of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in Africa and develop relevant technologies and products to address the AMR challenge.

AMR essentially renders some drugs ineffective and has contributes to 700,000 deaths globally each year. Although resistance to commonly prescribed antibiotics has been witnessed in Africa, the full scope of the burden is not yet understood as 40% of African countries do not have sufficient data on AMR.

“Antimicrobial resistance is likely to compound the high disease burden in Africa and therefore requires us to increase our understanding to be adaptive and responsive,” says AESA Director Prof Tom Kariuki.

The funding for projects is made available in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and through the Grand Challenges Africa and Grand Challenges South Africa programmes, which were created to catalyse scientific breakthroughs and find local solutions to solve Africa’s pressing challenges. The AAS and the SAMRC signed a collaboration agreement in 2016 and this is the second call for proposal issued by the partners under the Grand Challenges umbrella.”

Source: EASA