When Jeanne Marrazzo was introduced as director of the US Nationwide Institute of Allergy and Infectious Ailments (NIAID) final 12 months, she turned one of many main public well being decision-makers on the earth. Changing Anthony Fauci, whose tenure through the covid-19 pandemic made him a family identify, the stakes have by no means been larger for the company’s latest boss.

Having spent a long time working throughout HIV prevention and sexually transmitted illnesses, in addition to overseeing therapeutic interventions for covid-19, Marrazzo is now answerable for NIAID’s $6.6 billion annual price range – and the way forward for the US response to infectious illness.

That includes working with the institute’s 21 laboratories throughout the nation, main the struggle towards ebola and HIV and spearheading efforts to develop new vaccines, therapies, diagnostics and applied sciences.

On the prime of Marrazzo’s to-do listing is tackling antimicrobial resistance (AMR), or drug-resistant superbugs, that are predicted to trigger 10 million deaths per 12 months by 2050 at an annual price of $1 trillion to the worldwide financial system. In Might, the UK’s former chief medical officer warned that the rise of those pathogens may make the pandemic look “minor” and that the problem is extra acute than local weather change.

Our warming world is partly answerable for rising charges of AMR, with shifting local weather circumstances across the globe serving to micro organism akin to Salmonella and cholera-causing Vibrio to outlive – and evade our present antibiotic weaponry fully. Right here, Marrazzo outlines the issues we should always maybe concern most, in addition to some promising developments on the horizon.

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