Ali Yildiz

KEY 02 – Milestones and Challenges in Tackling AMR

Oct. 14, 2024, CEST: 04:00 PM - 05:30 PM / UTC: 02:00 PM - 03:30 PM

Keynote (KEY 02) - Europe

Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) remains a growing and concerning global challenge, despite decades of concerted effort. We’ve tried raising the alarm with terrifying statistics and compelling economic arguments, yet AMR continues to be overshadowed by other priorities. How do we move forward to secure the commitment and action needed to address AMR effectively?

This dynamic keynote session will explore key milestones in understanding, preventing, and managing AMR. The discussion will offer the latest insights on where we stand, address what is holding back progress, and showcase successful interventions. In the wake of the United Nations (UN) High-Level Meeting on AMR, this session will also address persistent challenges, including the slow pace of new drug development, inadequate regulatory frameworks, and the need for global coordination.

Ultimately, this session seeks to inspire the World Health Summit (WHS) audience with greater urgency, alignment, and ambition to bring commitments and goals for AMR to fruition from a policy and systems perspective. By examining both achievements and obstacles, this session aims to foster collective action to mitigate AMR's impact on global health. Join us in navigating the complex landscape of AMR, celebrate progress, and address the roadblocks that remain.

PD 10 – Driving Action: Innovation and Access for a Resilient Response Against AMR

Exploring Future Scenarios and Shaping Better Solutions

Oct. 14, 2024, CEST: 02:00 PM - 03:30 PM / UTC: 12:00 PM - 01:30 PM

Panel Discussion (PD 10) - Europe

2024 is a significant year for addressing the urgency of Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), which requires a broad, multi-stakeholder approach. Alarming statistics underpin the need for prompt action. In 2019, AMR was responsible for 1.27 million deaths and contributed to nearly five million overall. It’s a crisis that impacts every aspect of modern medicine, from surgery to cancer care.

The challenge is related not only to strengthening innovation but also to ensuring sustainable and appropriate access to both existing and new antibiotics, which requires a concerted approach to addressing the many interconnected challenges.

This session will delve into perspectives on the critical need for developing new antibiotics to treat resistant infections, and explore the path forward for concrete solutions to improve the innovation outlook and patient access. It will also explore how to maintain this priority high on the upcoming G7/G20 agendas.

Oct. 14, 2024, CEST: 09:00 AM - 10:30 AM / UTC: 07:00 AM - 08:30 AM

Workshop (WS 10) - South America

Antibiotics play a crucial role in modern medicine and without them many treatments and procedures (for example in cancer care, organ transplantation and childbirth) carry a significantly higher risk of complication or failure. However, the increasing resistance of bacterial pathogens to antibiotics - Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) - undermines the efficacy of these treatments and jeopardizes the benefits of modern healthcare, posing grave risks to vulnerable patient groups.

The world urgently needs Research & Development (R&D) to develop novel and innovative antibiotics that would not only safeguard the advance of medicine, but further provide value by decreasing the selection pressure on established antibiotics.

We stand at a pivotal moment to address the pressing health, economic, and societal issues of AMR. Public and private partners are facing the triple challenge of AMR: fostering innovation and viable markets for new, life-saving treatments and diagnostics, ensuring equitable access to safe and effective antibiotics, and the need for stewardship in use. Investment in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education will be critical to build the AMR R&D workforce for the future.

Acknowledging that innovation is essential to addressing AMR, and drawing on the anticipated discussions related to the Political Declaration on AMR this session aims to explore real-world solutions in policy, funding and cross-sector collaboration to accelerate the discovery and global supply of groundbreaking antibiotics.

PD 04 – Addressing Pandemic Threats Through the Lens of Climate Change

Oct. 13, 2024, CEST: 02:00 PM - 03:30 PM / UTC: 12:00 PM - 01:30 PM

Panel Discussion (PD 04) - Africa

The intersection of climate change and health has received increased public attention in recent years. However, the impact of climate change on infectious diseases is not always part of the discussion.

The changing climate is expanding the range of disease-carrying animals, such as mosquitoes and bats, partly due to climate-prompted migration. This increases the number of animal-to-human spill-over opportunities and viral-sharing between animals, heightening the risk of a new human virus, or Disease X, emerging.

Human health, planetary health, animal health and plant health are interdependent. We cannot advance pandemic resilience without considering how others are approaching the shared ecosystem.

As countries around the world learn from their experience in COVID-19 to build their resilience against an unknown future pandemic, it is imperative to incorporate climate change and One Health in the consideration and engineer systemic changes.

This panel discussion seeks to examine the relationship between pandemics, climate change and One Health, identify existing gaps and potential areas of intervention, and foster collaboration among diverse stakeholders.