An early warning centre has been proposed to monitor emerging epidemics in the Gulf.

Already in the planning stages, the centre is one of a set of recommendations to come from the three-day International Collaborative Conference in Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ICMID), which concluded at the Gulf Hotel yesterday (February 26), said a report in the Gulf Daily News (GDN), our sister publication.

The conference and exhibition, held under the patronage of His Royal Highness Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, was hosted by the Bahrain Medical Society (BMS) in collaboration with the Saudi Society for Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases and British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (BSAC).

Its recommendations encompass healthcare and patient safety, medical education and training, medical research and health education, conference organising committee chairman and BDF Hospital Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiologist consultant Dr Manaf Al Qahtani said.

“The recommendation for an early warning monitoring centre for emerging epidemics comes under healthcare and patient safety,” he said.

“Participants in the forum recommended more support from Gulf governments, represented by their respective health ministries, in terms of unified measures to combat emerging epidemics.

“We need common solutions formulated between the Gulf states and there should be more exchange of expertise among these nations.

“The centre will help in accumulating data on antibiotic consumption in the region, unification of supervision on antibiotics, rationing and rationalising programmes between Gulf states.

“We also propose integration in this monitoring programme as a requirement for accreditation of health facilities.”

BSAC president professor Dilip Nathwani said that the region faced challenges in terms of 'capacity and capability'.

“The threat of antimicrobials must not be underestimated,” he said.

“Our projections say that by 2050 there is going to be more deaths from multi-drug resistant diseases than cancer, accidents or trauma combined, which makes it a truly global medical emergency.

“Unless we put all the things that we spoke about in this conference into practice, in a timely and appropriate fashion, we are going to face a global threat.”

Other recommendations made by the conference included focusing on microbes and antibiotic-resistant infections in the curriculum of medical schools, establishing a Gulf Research Centre to develop a consolidated database of infections between GCC countries and organising awareness campaigns to reduce inappropriate antibiotic use.

BMS president Dr Mohammed Al Rafea said his society would closely follow whether the conference's recommendations were implemented. - TradeArabia News Service