11/2022 About
World Antimicrobial Awareness Week
On the occasion of the WHO’s World Antimicrobial Awareness Week from November 18 to 24, we would like to highlight antibiotic resistance as one of the biggest threats to global health. WHO also calls it the “silent pandemic”.
Antibiotic resistance can affect anyone of any age and in any country, leading to higher medical costs and mortality. If antibiotics lose their effectiveness, healthcare professionals will no longer have the ability to treat bacterial infections and control these often life-threatening infections.
At OCCIDENT, we believe it is essential to give this topic a higher profile in society so as not to run the risk of this “silent pandemic” developing into a very serious one in the future. Melanie and Danuta, founders of two of our portfolio companies developing solutions for the fight against antibiotic resistance, shared their thoughts.
Melanie from Avelo points out that “antimicrobial resistance has the potential to be the next big global health problem if we don’t act now. The fight against antimicrobial resistance is of particular relevance as we can prevent millions of unnecessary deaths and billions in economic losses.”
Danuta adds that “the discovery of antibiotics marked the birth of modern medicine and trivialized once deadly microbial infections. However, we ignored the fact that antibiotic resistance develops naturally – the more antibiotics we use, the faster antibiotic resistance spreads. Without antibiotics, simple infections will lead to more deaths, child mortality will rise again, and modern medical interventions such as surgeries or cancer therapies will become impossible. That’s why we at Resistell aim to support a shift from empirical therapy to precision therapy for infectious diseases to reduce the spread of antibiotic resistance.”
Read more about the World Antimicrobial Awareness Week under the following link.