Humans developed antibiotics in the 20th century. These wonder drugs defeat killer microbes and have revolutionized medicine, making surgeries and treatments like chemotherapy much safer. Unfortunately, people are overusing and misusing antibiotics, helping bacteria learn how to defend themselves against these lifesaving drugs.
Antimicrobial resistance is one of the top 10 global health threats. Drug-resistant microbes directly killed nearly 1.3 million people in 2019 – more than breast cancer, for example. The World Health Organization predicts they’ll kill as many as 10 million people a year by 2050 if humanity doesn’t act.
Can we take action to control the drug resistance these germs continuously build up, and can we develop new and better drugs for our arsenal against these killer bacteria?
Dr. Manica Balasegaram hopes so. As Executive Director of The Global Antibiotic Research & Development Partnership, he’s working to encourage the development of better antibiotics that target the infections that affect people the most – and then to get them to the people who most need them.
Listen as Manica chats with One World, One Health host Maggie Fox about the ways he hopes to help solve this life-or-death problem.