Gates Cambridge Annual Lecture 7 March 2017

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England’s Chief Medical Officer will give this year’s Gates Cambridge Annual Lecture on the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance.

Professor Dame Sally Davies’s lecture, Antimicrobial resistance: a cause for collaboration, will be delivered on March 7th.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is the ability of a microorganism to stop an antimicrobial, such as an antibiotic, from working against it, rendering standard treatments ineffective. Resistance is increasing due to a fall in new antimicrobials coming onto the market and scientists have warned that this threatens our ability to treat common infectious diseases, resulting in prolonged illness, disability and death. The World Heath Organization (WHO), for instance, warns that without effective antimicrobials the success of major surgery and cancer chemotherapy will be compromised, says 480,000 people around the world develop multi-drug resistant tuberculosis each year and that drug resistance is also starting to complicate the fight against HIV and malaria.

Dame Sally is a world expert on AMR . Her annual report as Chief Medical Officer, published in 2013, focused on the issue and called for national and international action to address the key areas of stewardship, monitoring and surveillance and antibiotic development. Since publication, Dame Sally has continued to advocate globally on AMR and has spoken on AMR at numerous events, including the G8 Science Ministers’ meeting in June 2013 and the Global Health Security Initiative in Rome and she was an invited technical expert at meetings organised by WHO . She was chair of the 2013 AMR forum at the World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH) in Qatar and is chair of the Strategic and Technical Advisory Group on AMR to the WHO . She has also raised public awareness of the issue through publication of her popular book, The Drugs Don’t Work: a Global Threat, and a TED talk.

Dame Sally became the first woman Chief Medical Officer for England in March 2011, having previously been Chief Scientific Adviser (CSA) to the Department of Health. In her role as CMO she publishes independent annual reports and provides independent advice to the UK Government on medical matters, with particular responsibility for public health.

Dame Sally also sits on the WHO Executive Board and advises many governments on health and policy, holding positions on a number of Boards and Groups, including the Singapore A Star International Advisory Group and University of Washington Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation Board.

*The Gates Cambridge Annual Lecture takes place at St John’s College from 6-7pm on 7th March. It is open to all and seats are allocated on a first come basis.