Festival of Global Health - The Silent Pandemic

The world is on the cusp of an ominous development: bacteria are building resistance to existing antibiotics faster than new antibiotics are entering the market.

Silent Pandemic

For the first time in recent history, we must come to terms with the fact that not all bacterial infections are treatable anymore, with implications for all areas of medicine, from surgery to oncology. The World Health Organisation has been using the term "silent pandemic" since the fall of 2021 because, unlike Corona, antibiotic resistance is creeping into our society unnoticed, but it is shaking up our healthcare system just as overarchingly. The issue is currently so serious that it is being treated with the same degree of urgency on the international policy stage as climate change or migration.

The Silent Pandemic shows how countries, scientists and private initiatives around the world are networking and forming alliances, and what strategies and measures they are using to counter the advance of antibiotic resistance. The film also focuses on the successes achieved so far in the fight against antibiotic resistance: Scientists in Uganda used the simplest of means to set up a monitoring system that can detect tuberculosis diseases ten times faster than before; in Pakistan, three female scientists succeeded in containing the outbreak of resistant typhus pathogens and thus preventing their worldwide spread. At the same time, the film showcases the work of the British government's special envoy on antimicrobial resistance, who is raising awareness of the continuing urgency of the problem around the world. 

Trailer

Lancet review

PANEL DISCUSSION

The panel discussion, moderated by Dr Toral Gathani, included:

Leopold Hoesch, the film producer

Dr Tess Johnson, Oxford Population Health

Professor David Aanensen, Centre for Genomic Pathogen Surveillance

Feedback

'It was great to have the film producer attending virtually, and the panel raised interesting and thought provoking points.'

The Oxford Population Health Festival of Global Health is led by Toral Gathani, Sarah Lewington, Hannah Calkin and Graham Bagley. Please contact us if you have any questions or comments or complete the online form to be added to the mailing list.

This Festival of Global Health is financially supported by a grant awarded to Toral Gathani and Sarah Lewington from the Van Houten Fund at the University of Oxford.