What is it about?
The paper explores how healthcare professionals in Zimbabwe understand antimicrobials in health care and society. These medicines are both used for patient care and as quick fixes for deeper social challenges, including poor sanitation, housing and infection prevention. Results highlights the need to shift AMR education beyond prescribing practices toward addressing root causes of infections and health issues. A broader, societal approach is needed to reduce reliance on antimicrobials and tackle antimicrobial resistance more effectively.
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Why is it important?
Our findings show that healthcare professionals in Zimbabwe are able to consider how social and structural conditions drive antimicrobial use. There are thus more opportunities to broaden antimicrobial resistance (AMR) education beyond prescription to include prevention and social aspects of health than previously appreciated.
Perspectives
Researching and writing this paper is the conclusion of a multi-year-long interest in understanding the roles of antimicrobials in health care and society. It challenged me to "think two thoughts at once", that antimicrobials can at the same time be both cornerstones for healthcare and quick fixes for societal ills. Antimicrobials as pharmaceuticals are not simply good or bad, but rather, their value comes from how they are used.
Martin Mickelsson
Goteborgs Universitet
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Antimicrobials as cornerstones and quick fixes Zimbabwean in healthcare and society: Health practitioners´ critical reflections on two stories of antimicrobial use as part of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) education, PLOS Global Public Health, July 2025, PLOS,
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgph.0004793.
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