Anti-infectives are medicines that work to help treat infections. They include antibacterials, antivirals, antifungals, and antiparasitic medications.

Anti-infectives have revolutionized healthcare.

Thanks to anti-infective therapies, we now can: 

• Treat minor infections and many serious infectious diseases, like pneumonia or tuberculosis.
• Perform routine procedures and complex surgery, such as cesarean sections or joint replacements, which carry a risk of serious infection.
• Give vital immuno-suppressive treatments, like chemotherapy, to people with cancer

Antimicrobial-resistant infections are those where the pathogen no longer responds to the anti-infective being used as treatment.

Alarmingly, many anti-infectives are losing their effectiveness due to Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), which, in turn may cause infections to become increasingly difficult or impossible to treat.

AMR is therefore widely recognized as one of the biggest threats to global health today.

A continued rise in AMR could take 10 million lives globally each year by 2050 – more than currently die from cancer.