Growing resistance to antibiotics is one of the most significant current threats to global public health. Estimates suggest that in the European Union and the United States alone infections from multidrug resistant bacteria cause around 50,000 deaths a year, with substantial economic burdens associated with these infections. These figures will likely worsen, in the absence of new antibiotics to replace those with declining effectiveness.

Existing systems of global health governance and drug development need to be reconfigured in order to respond to new threats. Coordinated international action is needed to address an impending global crisis – but how best to mobilise divergent private and public sector interests and forestall pending disorder?

The interdisciplinary panel sitting across International Development, Health Policy, Government and International Relations will each address the challenge of growing resistance to antibiotics, providing a solution from their disciplinary viewpoint with questions and comments submitted in the days leading up to the event fed into the discussion.

Michael Anderson is a Research Officer in Health Policy at the Department of Health Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, and a Medical Doctor undertaking General Practice specialty training.

Mathias Koenig-Archibugi is Associate Professor of Global Politics at the Department of Government. He joined the LSE in 2000 and is currently Senior Lecturer in Global Politics. After completing his secondary and undergraduate education in Rome, Italy, he received his PhD in Political Science from the University of Florence (2000).

Ken Shadlen is Professor of Development Studies in the Department of International Development. Ken works on the comparative and international political economy of development, with a focus on understanding variation in national policy responses to changing global rules.

Catherine Wilkosz  is a nurse from Ann Arbor, Michigan who recieved her BSN from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. She worked primarily in intraoperative orthopaedic trauma surgery before pursuing her masters in Global Health Policy at LSE. 

Ernestina Coast (@LSE_ID ) is Professor of Health and International Development at the Department of International Development. Ernestina’s research is multidisciplinary and positioned at an intersection of social science approaches including health, gender and development.  As a social scientist with training in demography and anthropology, her research uses mixed methods (quantitative and qualitative) to understand the inter-relationships between social context and health-related behaviours, with a focus on sexual and reproductive health.

Twitter hashtags for this event: #LSEFestival #NewWorldDisorders

This event is part of the LSE Festival: New World (Dis)Orders running from Monday 25 February to Saturday 2 March 2019, with a series of events exploring how social science can tackle global problems.

Podcast 

A podcast of this event is available to download from The Drugs Aren't Working! Confronting the Crisis of Superbugs.

Podcasts and videos of many LSE events can be found at the LSE Public Lectures and Events: podcasts and videos channel.