Having an opportunity to share my personal experience battling antibiotic resistant infections at the United Nations at the High Level Meeting on Antimicrobial Resistance two weeks ago, was a moment I won't forget.
As I write this, I am facing yet another flare up on the infections that chronically plague my lungs. It is exhausting, it is frustrating, and it is frightening.
My health condition, cystic fibrosis, means I’m at a lifelong risk of infections – something I will never escape from. And more I learned about #AMR and the stories I hear of many others, the more I realized the enormous scale of the issue.
Any one of us can develop an infection. Because of drug-resistance, we’re increasingly seeing infections that could easily be treated become UNTREATABLE.
We’ve seen amazing breakthroughs in science and medicine over the past decades but if we don’t act now to prevent AMR, we are exponentially increasing the likelihood of many infections taking people’s lives.
With antimicrobial resistance already claiming 1.3 million lives annually worldwide and projections indicating a potential rise to 10 million by 2050 in the absence of intervention, there is dire urgency to unite on a global front.
In my address to global leaders at the #UNGA79, I urged for union on thinking differently and collaboratively. Researchers, medicine manufacturers, policymakers, investors, and the public must strategize effective ways explore new therapeutic approaches developing novel antimicrobial compounds, and diagnostics, while promoting stewardship measures on community levels.
I urged world leaders to act proactively to fight against AMR. Create necessary policies, bolster greater investment into new treatments and technologies, convene resources, assemble stakeholders because we are running out of time.
I hope for a future where AMR isn't the greatest threat to my life, and a future where bacteria can’t take the lives of many. AMR is a silent pandemic and currently one of the greatest threats to our globe.
🔬 To my colleagues and followers in the healthcare world who may or may not have heard about AMR, please educate yourselves.
✍ I was featured in this article published today on the American Society for Microbiology titled "The Antimicrobial Resistance Pandemic: Breaking the Silence"
👉 Learn more about what it is, why it matters, and what we can do to raise awareness and find solutions:
https://lnkd.in/euUMwSZe
