The prevalence of antibiotic- (antimicrobial-) resistant bacteria has been escalating over the last few decades and it is now considered ‘one of the world’s most pressing public health issues’ by the Centers for Diseases Control (CDC) and the WHO. Antibiotic resistance in bacteria stems from many different sources, such as misuse of antibiotics (both in and out of hospitals) and the addition of antibiotics into animal feed. Worse, while fewer new antibiotics are developed every year, more and more bacteria are becoming resistant to antibiotics: including second- and third-line antibiotics.

In developing nations, many fatal diseases previously kept under control by antibiotics are surging back to life as novel, antibiotic-resistant strains develop. The WHO reports that over 440,000 new cases of tuberculosis that are resistant to two or more drugs emerge annually. In developed countries, HIV is becoming more resistant to the antiretroviral drugs used to treat it. More recently, a strain of gonorrhea resistant to every available antibiotic was discovered in Japan.

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria pose a serious health risk to humans because they prolong illness, leaving the infected more susceptible to death and making these “superbugs” more likely to spread. Antibiotic resistance also increases the cost of health care, because it forces doctors to order more expensive and toxic treatments to combat diseases and keep their patients in care for longer. Studies have shown that antibiotic-resistant bacteria cost the US healthcare system alone at least $21 billion a year.

Delegates must consider the implications of all the threats posed by antibiotic-resistant bacteria, combating their spread without compromising healthcare worldwide, and formulate concrete and viable solutions. Without a consensus in the WHO, a world where antibiotics are useless—reminiscent of medical care a century ago—is a very real possibility.

The HIV/AIDS pandemic has been a highly-publicized, universally-recognised issue for many years. However, it remains a serious problem today. The number of deaths attributed to HIV/AIDS stands at a staggering two million annually, and over thirty million are currently living with the disease. Although the eradication of HIV/AIDS was named one of the United Nations’ eight Millennium Development Goals, much work is still required.

AIDS is the eventually fatal final stage of HIV, an infectious disease spread by contact with bodily fluids such as semen, breast milk, and blood. HIV can also spread from an infected mother to an unborn child. After first being identified in 1981, HIV/AIDS spread across the globe. It has escalated into a pandemic, leaving no region untouched. The most afflicted area is Sub-Saharan Africa, which accounts for over 60% of all HIV-positive people in the world. While there is no cure for HIV/AIDS, the current most effective treatment, which can prolong life for up to 20 years, is highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), a treatment which involves taking a mixture of three different antiretroviral drugs. One reason regions like sub-Saharan Africa are so greatly affected is because they lack the funding and the medical infrastructure needed to distribute and administer these drugs. A small fraction of patients who require treatment receive it,

Although the UN has been heavily involved in combating the HIV/AIDS pandemic, having named its eradication an MDG and having established UNAIDS, more action is needed. The major problems which must be addressed are multifaceted. Obviously, there is the ongoing goal of discovering a cure for AIDS, but that will be a goal difficult to attain. There is the issue of distribution in low- and middling- income countries. Even if a cure was discovered, it would need to be made universally accessible to actually eradicate HIV/AIDS to the level of smallpox. Secondly, there is the more immediate problem of slowing and reversing the spread of the pandemic—short of eradicating it once and for all. Most likely, this will involve the wider deployment of HAART, which presents a large problem in low- and middling-income countries due to the lack of medical infrastructure, personnel, and funding available. Equally important in the reversal of HIV/AIDS’s spread will be increased education and adoption of preventative measures, such as the use and distribution of condoms as well as other “safe sex” practices which are not practiced in many regions of the world. Most certainly, delegates faced with the immense problem of HIV/AIDS will need to consider attacking the issue from multiple and various angles to come up with a multifaceted solution that will be—unlike past attempts—implementable and implemented.