Antibiotic Resistance Policy Challenges and Solutions

Antimicrobial resistance is one of the most serious threats to global health. Fast-evolving bacteria cause potentially deadly infections such as tuberculosis to develop strains that are no longer treatable by antibiotics. A looming, global health crisis is driven by inappropriate use of antimicrobials, the proliferation of antibiotics in the food supply, and the difficulty of developing new drugs. This lecture series will feature three prominent scholars examining this urgent topic from the perspectives of their fields of study: microbiology and infectious disease, agriculture and food production, and public policy.

Global access to effective antimicrobials is under threat. While insufficient and delayed access to antibiotics currently cause more deaths than antibiotic resistance, more resistance-related deaths are being reported in all countries irrespective of income level. The key is to promote universal provision of antimicrobials in appropriate situations while ensuring continued effectiveness. Prof. Laxminarayan will discuss how we might leverage the momentum achieved through the UN General Assembly High-Level Meeting of Heads of State on sustainable access to effective antimicrobials in September 2016 to develop realistic goals, stimulate political will, mobilize resources, and agree on an accountability mechanism for global collective action on this crucial issue.

Ramanan Laxminarayan, PhD, MPH, is Director and Senior Fellow at the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy (CDDEP) in Washington, DC, and a Senior Research Scholar and Lecturer at the Princeton Environmental Institute. He is an Affiliate Professor at the University of Washington and a Visiting Professor at the University of Kwazulu Natal. Laxminarayan is a Co-founder of HealthCubed, which works to improve access to healthcare and diagnostics. Since 1995, Prof. Laxminarayan has worked to improve the understanding of antibiotic resistance as a problem of managing a shared global resource. He has served on the US President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology’s antimicrobial resistance working group, and is currently a voting member of the US Presidential Advisory Council on Combating Antimicrobial Resistance. In 2012, Prof. Laxminarayan created the Immunization Technical Support Unit of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of the Government of India, which is credited with helping rapidly improve vaccination coverage and introduction of four new vaccines. As Vice President, Research and Policy at the Public Health Foundation of India between 2011 and 2015, he led the growth of a research division to over 700 technical and research staff.