Imagine a world where a simple cut could be a death sentence; where routine surgeries become impossible, and common infections transform into untreatable nightmares. This isn’t science fiction — it’s the looming reality of antimicrobial resistance, or AMR, a silent global health emergency that threatens to unravel decades of medical progress.
As drug-resistant infections claim nearly 4.7 million lives annually and are projected to kill 70% more people by 2050, the global health community is pinning its hopes on an unprecedented intervention: the Independent Panel on Evidence for Action against Antimicrobial Resistance, or IPEA. Modeled loosely on the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, this new body represents a critical inflection point in humanity’s most urgent public health challenge.
IPEA will help to consolidate scientific evidence to inform policymakers and raise awareness about the rise and spread of drug-resistant infections. Unlike climate change debates of the past, there’s a rare consensus about AMR. Scientists, policymakers, and health experts agree on the problem’s severity and the broad strokes of its solution.
About the author
Dr. Manica Balasegaram
Dr. Manica Balasegaram is the executive director of the Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership, or GARDP. With over 20 years experience working in global health, Balasegaram is a global health leader and medical professional specializing in infectious diseases and clinical development.
