Escherichia Coli, it Prevalence and Antibiotic Resistant in Malaysia: A Mini Review

Abstract

The threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is growing at an alarming rate with the misuse of antimicrobial agent as the main driver of resistance that threatens the treatment of diseases. The world needs to change the way it prescribes and uses antibiotics as there is a possibility that we are heading into a post-antibiotic era. There has not been a new class of antibiotics since the 1980s and even if new medicines are developed, without any intervention and control over the usage of these drugs, antimicrobial resistance will remain a major threat. Malaysia, like the rest of the world is not spared and has been encountering the repercussions of AMR which includes increased in numbers of untreatable infectious diseases, higher mortality and increased in economic cost. In 2015, the sixty-eight World Health Assembly urges all member states to adopt the global action plan on AMR and develop the country’s national action plan on AMR aligned with the global action plan and with standards and guidelines established by relevant intersectoral agencies. In response to this, the Ministry of Health Malaysia initiated a working committee which calls for an urgent collaboration among different related sectors under a One Health approach to address on the development of the Malaysian Action Plan framework. This initial framework outlines the views of stakeholders from across the sectors of human and animal health including aquaculture as well as the food sectors on gaps and solutions to address AMR situation in Malaysia.