Prof Andrew Whitelaw has recently been appointed to the Ministerial Advisory Committee (MAC) on Anti-microbial Resistance that will provide advice related to the implementation and monitoring of strategies outlined in the Department of Health's (DoH) National Strategy Framework.

Whitelaw, Head of the Division of Medical Microbiology at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at Stellenbosch University, explained that the problem of anti-microbial resistance has been receiving attention globally for a number of years.

"The emergence of hospital-acquired organisms that are resistant to all available antibiotics has increased awareness of the critical nature of this problem over the last few years. This includes the potential return to the pre-antibiotic era, for example where some bacterial infections will no longer be treatable," he said.  

The World Health Assembly adopted a global action plan proposed by the World Health Organisation in 2014, part of which required member states to formulate national strategies to tackle the problem. The South African Antibiotic Stewardship Programme (SAASP), together with the DoH, launched the National Strategy Framework for Antimicrobial Resistance in 2014.

The MAC will be responsible to provide advice on strategies including those related to institutionalisation of antibiotic stewardship; strengthening infection prevention and control; education and training of healthcare professionals; community advocacy and awareness; agricultural use of anti-microbials; use of new diagnostic tests; and research on and surveillance of resistance and anti-microbial use.

Whitelaw has been involved in antibiotic resistance research for a number of years, studying mechanisms of resistance, the epidemiology and spread of resistant infections, as well as infection control. He is involved in the provincial Anti-microbial Stewardship Committee, and in the past has served on institutional and provincial infection prevention and control bodies.