Averting antimicrobial resistance: why leadership matters – ECDC session at the 16th World Congress on Public Health

The session will feature global public health leaders, whose interventions can only be stronger and more impactful if complemented by strong leadership in all sectors and at various levels. Views from economics, governance and of championing at national level will be shared with the audience.

Objectives of the session:

• To advocate for strong leadership in AMR prevention and control, across all sectors;
• To showcase remaining hurdles and potential solutions to addressing them;
• To resonate a sense of urgency for high-level attention to AMR globally.

Moderators: Bettina Borisch – WFPHA and Karl Ekdahl – ECDC

Speakers:

1. Andrea Ammon – Director, ECDC: set the scene on EU/EEA & cross border health threat by Antimicrobial resistance (AMR)

2. Ramanan Laxminarayan – Director, Centre for Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy – (CDDEP), Washington (DC), USA; and Chair, Global Antibiotic Research & Development Partnership (GARDP): focus on the role of costs of not dealing with AMR and savings if something is done

3. Dame Sally Davies – Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, United Kingdom: focus on governance at the global level and how to motivate countries to move forward when there are clear implications for sectors such as infrastructure or pharmaceutical industry profit

4. Martha Gyansa-Lutterodt, Director of Pharmaceutical Services, Ministry of Health, Ghana: focus on the example of work at national level in Ghana

Format: 60 min moderated discussion (3 min intro, 3 questions asked to the panellists (10 min/question), 25 min Q&A with the audience, 2 min closing)