Enhancing US-Japan cooperation to combat antimicrobial resistance

The Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA) is aimed at preventing, detecting, and responding to infectious disease threats. To move toward these goals, the United States has committed to partner with at least 30 countries around the world. One of the objectives of the GHSA includes "[p]reventing the emergence and spread of antimicrobial drug resistant organisms." Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has become a growing global health security problem, with inappropriate use of antimicrobial medications in humans and animals and a lack of new antimicrobial medications contributing to this problem. While AMR is a growing global concern, working on it regionally can make this multifaceted problem more manageable. The United States and Japan, both world leaders in the life sciences, are close allies that have established cooperative programs in medical research and global health that can be used to work on combating AMR and advance the GHSA. Although the United States and Japan have cooperated on health issues in the past, their cooperation on the growing problem of AMR has been limited. Their existing networks, cooperative programs, and close relationships can and should be used to work on combating this expanding problem.