On November 27 and 28, the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation in Agriculture (IICA) sponsored a technical mission to provide assistance to BAHA in developing an Integrated Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance Program. The mission was executed by Dr. Armando Hoet, Veterinary Public Health Program Coordinator for the Ohio State University and Dr. Ericka Calderon, Animal Health and Food Safety Specialist of IICA. Drs. Hoet and Calderon have tremendous expertise in the field of Antimicrobial Resistance and have provided support to several countries in the region.
Antimicrobial Resistance is recognized by the World Health Organization as a global threat and guidance documents recommend an integrated approach to combat this threat. In harmony with this integrated approach the workshop hosted representatives from human health, agricultural health and the productive sector. Belize is the first country in Central America that has taken steps to adopt this approach and the fifth in the Latin America and Caribbean Region.