A plaque on the side of the Saint Mary’s Hospital in Paddington, London, UK, commemorates the discovery of penicillin, the first antibiotic, in 1928. Fungal spores, blown by the wind, landed on Sir Alexander Fleming's Petri dishes killing the bacteria he was growing leading to a revolution in medicine.
Fleming Fund second phase underway in Malawi: African leadership to address deadly AMR
Phase II of the Fleming Fund in Malawi means a further £3m of investment in laboratories, disease surveillance systems, and the workforce in human, animal, and environmental sectors.
Global estimates suggest that the burden of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) falls on those living in low resource settings, where there is a high burden of infection and minimal access to antibiotics. In Malawi, there is evidence of increasing resistance of common pathogens to antibiotics. The Government of Malawi has recognised this, with President Chakwera pledging his support to the Fleming Fund programme.
Delivered by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alongside the Government of Malawi, the UK aid Fleming Fund country grant is building on an initial investment of £4m and will support the Malawian government’s new National Action Plan to contain AMR, helping to reduce the threat posed by drug resistance.
Image shows: Central Veterinary Laboratory staff member performing a culture for pathogen testing, in Malawi
The funding will advance the surveillance capacity across human and animal health and the environment – with 13 laboratories across the country supported to generate and use data on AMR patterns – critical to inform policy and practice to enable the control of AMR.
“Antimicrobial resistance is a silent killer which poses a significant threat to people’s health in Malawi. In partnership with the UK, we are looking to build on the successes of the first phase of our programme to tackle AMR which led to improvements in laboratory capacity across the country. The data emerging is allowing us to develop a smarter approach to the use of antimicrobials, safeguarding the Malawian people against antibiotic resistance.”
Malawi’s Minister of Health, Hon. Khumbize Kandodo Chiponda, MP
Technical support will be provided by the Fleming Fund country grantee, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and by Lilongwe University of Agriculture and National Resources (Luanar University). This aims to strengthen clinical diagnostic capacities and collaboration between medical and laboratory professionals at different centres of excellence (Kamuzu Central, Queens hospital and Zomba Central Hospitals) to improve the management of bacterial infections in-country. The grant will also improve the veterinary practice and linkages between farmers and veterinarians, contributing to livestock productivity.
Image shows: Fleming Fund Country grantee University of North Carolina team having discussions with Central Veterinary Laboratory staff, in Malawi.
In addition to the £3m investment in laboratories, a Fleming Fellowship Scheme, led by the University of Edinburgh, will strengthen the Malawian health workforce, and specialist training will be delivered by the African Society of Laboratory Medicine, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), the International Vaccine Institute (IVI), among others. Targeting pharmacists, and laboratory and hospital staff, the specialist training will boost expertise in microbiology, AMR policy, and One Health – which recognises the connection between humans, animals, and the environment.
Image shows: Sheep blood testing for AMR at the Central Veterinary Laboratory, in Malawi
"As a Fleming Fund country grantee, the UNC Project will continue its long history of working to improve the health of the people of Malawi. Supporting 13 laboratories across animal and human health sectors to provide site-level antimicrobial sensitivity results to a central national data repository, means AMR can be addressed from the patient bedside through to government-level policy interventions. The next phase will continue the partnership with Fleming Fund to expand upon this work, improve facility stewardship, and seek viable means towards sustainability.”
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Principal Investigator, Robert Krysiak
“Around 1.27 million people around the world die each year due to AMR – where bacteria have evolved so much that antibiotics and other current treatments are no longer effective against infections – with one in five of those deaths in children under five. I am delighted that the UK’s Fleming Fund will allow the Malawian government to tackle AMR and build pandemic preparedness on the ground in Malawi. The Fleming Fund investment will deliver the second phase of the UK-Malawi Fleming Fund partnership with Malawi’s Ministries of Health and Agriculture, and further accelerate collaboration on AMR surveillance across One Health sectors.”
UK High Commissioner to Malawi, Fiona Ritchie
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Programme Update
From Programme Update, Putting Gender and Equity at the heart of the Fleming Fund's next phase , Date: 24/03/2023
There is a growing recognition that both sex (the physical dimension) and gender (the psychosocial dimension) – and the interaction between them and behaviours between them – can play a significant role in antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and use (AMU).