AMR’s human and economic costs are staggering. In the U.S. alone, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates 23,000 deaths annually from drug-resistant bacterial infections, $20 billion in direct health care costs, and $35 billion in lost productivity.
The worst could be yet to come. Last week, the World Health Organization called AMR a threat “so serious that it threatens the achievements of modern medicine,” requiring action across all sectors of government and society. Echoing similar pronouncements by CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden and others, the WHO noted that “a post-antibiotic era – in which common infections and minor injuries can kill – far from being an apocalyptic fantasy, is instead a very real possibility for the 21st Century.”
SmartGlobalHealth.org is the website for the Global Health Policy Center at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington D.C. The Global Health Policy Center is a leading policy research institution focused on building bipartisan awareness about global health and its importance to U.S. national security.
Daniel is a senior associate with CSIS’s Global Health Policy Center, where he focuses on the intersection of global health and security, including health diplomacy. A retired U.S. Navy Captain with extensive interagency and international senior leadership experience, Daniel was the first Naval Officer to serve as Deputy Commander of the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC), which conducts innovative and lifesaving research, development and acquisition to deliver, distribute and maintain medical information, products, supplies and equipment to the U.S. military community.
An earlier post by Daniel on a related issue, "Fighting Drug-resistant Malaria with Bad Drugs," appeared last November. The CSIS published his report, "Drug-Resistant Malaria: A Generation of Progress in Jeopardy," last November and a PDF of it is available here.
No comments:
Post a Comment