AMR Action Fund CEO Henry Skinner and Union for International Cancer Control CEO Cary Adams co-authored an op-ed for Media Planet’s USA Today Infectious Disease campaign about the ways in which antimicrobial resistance is undermining cancer care and harming vulnerable patients.
“Antibiotics have played an overlooked but instrumental role in cancer treatment for decades. Oncologists rely on antibiotics to both treat infections that occur in cancer patients and to reduce the risk of acquiring infections during and after chemotherapy, surgeries, bone marrow transplants, and other procedures,” they wrote. “However, antibiotics aren’t guaranteed cures, as they once were, due to the rapid rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, often referred to as “superbugs.” Superbugs are a global plague already associated with more than 4 million deaths annually. By 2050, they are expected to contribute to approximately 10 million deaths each year — the same number of cancer deaths we will see in 2024. For cancer patients, their families, and their medical teams, this is hugely problematic.”
Read the full op-ed here.