About The GAR Foundation
The Antibiotics resistance event in Helsinki 2019 with several stakeholders has been a big and decisive eye opener. Antibiotics are the foundation of healthcare and if they cease to work then many forms of treatment, such as the simplest surgical operations would become extremely dangerous, due to infection risk.
If we don’t start soon with a decent antibiotics (Antimicrobial Resistance) program, we will lose the war against microbes and end up back in the Middle Ages. This is perhaps even a problem of the same importance as global warming that not many people seem to realize. Each year already only in the U.S., at least 2.8 million people get an antibiotic-resistant infection and more than 35,000 people die from it. About the same amount of people (33.000 in 2018) die in Europe and a minimum estimated 700.000 people globally. It is assumed that in 2050 even up to 10 Million people could die because of an AMR infection.
Bacteria are getting more and more resistant to the normal drugs that we have. Resistant bacteria have been even found in the most remote areas on the planet.
Governments, research organizations, and pharmaceutical companies have worked for years to reduce antibiotic resistance but a coordinated cooperation is needed.
A difficulty in reducing antibiotic resistance is its cost. Developing other types of medicines is cheaper and more profitable than developing new antibiotics. Most pharmaceutical companies have dropped antibiotics from their R&D programs and the developers are not able to attract the crucial investments.
Pharmaceutical companies need better profitability to be able to develop new antibiotics. Governments should facilitate pharmaceutical development to decrease the costs and increase fair profitability.
They should also shorten the time to approval, and encourage investments in Antibiotics. Governmental reimbursements or rewards could be awarded afterwards as extra incentive, based on the impact of the new medicines. Governments and the Pharmaceutical Industry should also collaborate in educating people on the correct use of antibiotics.
It is time for Governments to realize that something has to be done soon before it is too late. Many countries like Italy and Greece are already experiencing a huge increase of resistant bacteria. This problem will sooner or later affect all of us and our children and is not a local issue but needs a GLOBAL approach. We decided to start a global platform to create awareness, trying to bring together research institutes, politicians, organizations, patients, the media and the pharmaceutical industry. The question is, do you want to sponsor this with gifts or actions to get awareness for this most important issue? Together we can make this possible and need to do this, if we want to stop an upcoming disaster.
Our Story
How We Got Started
The loss of a close family member caused by antibiotic resistance made us realize that the awareness about antibiotic resistance needs to increase globally. The seriousness about the fact that our antibiotics will not be effective anymore, caused us to take action. If we want our children and the next generations to live in a world where minor standard surgical procedures are not life threatening, we need to act now. Delay is no option!
Where We Are Now
We are at the beginning of our exciting journey and will proceed raising awareness that is needed to inform governments, media, medical staff and the public about this life threatening situation. Together we want to make this world a safer place. Join us in our efforts! We´d like you to send us your articles on this matter so we can publish them on our site. We´d like to be in contact with the media to increase exposure. If you represent a governmental institute we´d also like to come in contact with you and if you feel you want to support us with a donation please visit our donation page.
Become a Supporter Today
Join us in our efforts! If you feel you want to support us with a donation please visit our donation page.
