2022-11-21
Professor Otto Cars, founder of ReAct, has been awarded Research!Sweden's honorary award for his dedicated work in slowing down the development of antibiotic resistance. This includes his work to enable the development of new antibiotics and equal access to effective treatments for bacterial infections globally. The award will be presented on the Research!Sweden Day on 28 November.
Antibiotics have revolutionized healthcare. Today we can treat and cure infections that could previously be fatal, such as wound infections, pneumonia and sepsis. At the same time, the overuse of antibiotics has accelerated the global spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The number of deaths caused by antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections is much higher than previously estimated, reaching 1.27 million globally in 2019.
Honorary award for dedicated work on antibiotic resistance
– The fight against antibiotic resistance is a matter of fate. This year’s honorary award is given to Professor Otto Cars for his dedicated work, which has played a central role in research on antibiotics and the impact of their use on the development of antibiotic resistance. His work has also led to the fact that Sweden today enjoys an internationally favorable situation of low levels of antibiotic resistance,
says Anna Nilsson Vindefjärd, Secretary General of Research!Sweden.
Making Sweden a pioneer
As the initiator of the Swedish health care professional network called Strama and founder of ReAct, Otto Car’s efforts have also been crucial to Sweden’s national and international efforts to reduce antibiotic use.
– Otto Car’s contribution to making Sweden a pioneer in both antibiotic resistance research and rational antibiotic use cannot be overestimated. With his commitment, he is also raising this previously overlooked health threat on the international political agenda, which is of utmost importance for global health,”
says Anna Nilsson Vindefjärd.
Surprised and honored
On 28 November, at the Research Sweden Day, he will receive the Foundation’s honorary award for his work.
– I am very surprised and honored to receive the award from Research!Sweden. The international commitment to antibiotic resistance has increased significantly in recent years, but the gaps between the increasing antibiotic resistance and the necessary global political agreements are unfortunately still very large,
says Otto Cars, Professor of Infectious Diseases at Uppsala University and Founder of ReAct
Sweden’s EU presidency 2023
Otto Cars hopes that Sweden’s EU presidency in Spring 2023 will provide another opportunity to raise the issue on the international political agenda.
– The expert meeting on antibiotic resistance during our EU Presidency in 2009 led to several important initiatives. It is my hope that Sweden will be able to take the antibiotics issue to a new level in the coming years,”
Otto Cars concludes.
Release: Otto Cars receives Honorary Award, Research!Sweden website (in Swedish).
Article about the event in Swedish at Research!Sweden website
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