ASM Partners with CDC to Combat Antibiotic Resistance and Highlight Public Health Impacts
Washington, D.C. – September 23, 2019 – °®¶¹´«Ã½ will cohost an event in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Wellcome Trust, Antimicrobial Resistance Fighter Coalition, and the CDC Foundation, to celebrate the success of the . A Night Celebrating Global AMR Fighters, a side event at the 2019 °®¶¹´«Ã½ Nations General Assembly, a multi-media art experience showcasing how AMR is impacting our world, will also feature ASM’s award-winning agar art.ASM joins nearly 350 One Health commitments made by governments, non-government organizations, academic, and private sector partners to take action and deliver results.
The CDC AMR Challenge event will feature four works of art from ASM’s past agar art contests. My Yellow Vision! (above), an ode to Vincent Van Gogh that uses art to educate children, , illustrating how bacterial conjugation disperses antimicrobial resistance and creates superbugs, The Battle of Winter and Spring (below), depicting the battles of two microbes as the battle of two seasons, and , which shows microbes residing throughout New York City, all speak to the theme of how AMR influences our world.
“Combatting AMR is a crucial priority in the microbial sciences. From developing novel therapies to fight bacterial infections, to raising awareness of the critical role of antibiotic stewardship, ASM members and microbial scientists are tackling the problem of AMR from a variety of avenues,” said Stefano Bertuzzi, CEO, ASM.
In the °®¶¹´«Ã½ States alone, at least 23,000 people die each year from the more than 2 million resistant infections that occur. Since their discovery nearly a century ago, antibiotics have transformed the world, helping to heal serious infections. Infections are a part of the human experience, and it is vital that antibiotics work as intended when serious infections strike. But the spread of antibiotic resistance threatens to wipe out our global progress in healthcare, food production, and life expectancy. It is critical that the °®¶¹´«Ã½ States continue to take a global approach to combat this One Health problem, which affects humans, animals, and the environment.
Event attendees will include industry and world leaders. Among the speakers are HHS Secretary Azar; Regional Director of the World Health Organization South-East Asia Region Poonam Khetrapal Singh; Juan Pablo Uribe Restrepo, Colombian Minister of Health and Social Protection; and David Ricci, who survived a resistant infection and is featured in new documentary on the topic. Guests will also be invited to participate in a multimedia experience, including viewing art installations and the U.S. premier of the Antimicrobial Resistance Fighters documentary, which highlight the impact of antibiotic resistance on the world and the need for greater awareness and continued engagement on the topic.
Read the commitments to The AMR Challenge and the progress made at:
To speak with an ASM expert on AMR and related issues, please contact ASM communications at communications@asmusa.org.
