Egypt's acting health minister, WHO delegation discuss AMR threats

CAIRO - 6 December 2021: Acting Health Minister Dr Khaled Abdel Ghaffar met Monday with a delegation from the World Health Organization (WHO) to discuss mechanisms of reducing antimicrobial resistance (AMR) threats.

This includes protection protocols and effective treatment, as well as rational use of medicines and antibiotics at hospitals.

Such steps should help protect citizens against AMR, which is one of the biggest public health problems.

Abdel Ghaffar pressed for promoting campaigns to raise citizens' awareness of risks of the excessive use of unprescribed antibiotics. He warned that the excessive use of antibiotics could very well reduce their treatment ability. 

The Health Ministry said on Sunday night that 902 new coronavirus cases were detected in Egypt over the past 24 hours, upping the total number of infections to 363,162.

Health Ministry spokesman Hossam Abdel Ghaffar said 45 patients died from the virus over the past 24 hours, raising the death toll to 20,727.

As many as 871 patients were discharged from hospitals after receiving medical care, taking the number of recoveries to 301,308, it added.