WHO Representative to Jordan Dr Jamela Al Raiby, WHO Assistant Director-General for Antimicrobial Resistance Dr Hanan Balkhy, and Regional Advisor for Antimicrobial Resistance Dr Maha Talaat

9 March 2022 – A WHO delegation led by WHO Assistant Director-General for Antimicrobial Resistance Dr Hanan Balkhy, WHO Representative to Jordan Dr Jamela Al Raiby, and Regional Advisor for Antimicrobial Resistance Dr Maha Talaat at the WHO Regional Office, conducted a 4-day mission to discuss implementation of Jordan's national antimicrobial resistance action plan.

The mission aimed to provide high-level advocacy for implementation of the antimicrobial resistance action plan through engagement with national and international stakeholders, including the Ministers of Health, Agriculture, Environment, and Water and Irrigation, the Health and Environmental Committee of the House of Representatives, the Director-General of Royal Medical Services, the President of the National Epidemiology and Infectious Diseases Centre, and representatives of United Nations agencies and civil society organizations.

The mission also reviewed progress in implementation of the plan and identified priority areas for targeted support.

WHO Assistant Director-General for Antimicrobial Resistance Dr Hanan Al-Balkhy stressed that antimicrobial resistance posed a global threat to health and development and had been identified by WHO as among the 10 major global threats to public health facing humanity. As the reasons for the emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance were multiple and complex it required urgent multisectoral action in order to make progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

WHO Representative to Jordan Dr Jamela Al Raiby said that antimicrobial resistance was not only a threat to human health but was also a source of great concern in the areas of animal health and agriculture. WHO and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the World Organisation for Animal Health and the United Nations Environment Programme had formulated "Tripartite Plus" collaboration to jointly address this public health threat under the "One Health" approach.

Jordan is the fourth country in WHO's Eastern Mediterranean Region to endorse and publish its antimicrobial resistance national action plan, and in 2017 had established a multi-disciplinary national antimicrobial resistance technical committee. 

The infrastructure and human resources to address antimicrobial resistance requires further mobilization of domestic resources, and WHO, across the three levels of the Organization, will continue to provide technical support to Jordan in implementing the national plan.