Melissa's story

Melissa Nelson is a disease intervention specialist with the Jefferson County Department of Health, in Birmingham, Albama, USA. When someone is diagnosed with a sexually transmitted infection, it is Melissa's job to investigate from where it has come and to stop it from spreading further.

"People affectionately call us 'sex detectives'," she says.

When engaging with young people who feel invincible, Melissa asks them, "What would you do if we started to see a drug-resistant strain of gonorrhoea here in Birmingham, Alabama? Because it exists."

Ashish's story

Dr Ashish Abraham runs medical camps in villages in Madhepura, a rural district in the state of Bihar in northern India, to offer care to the Musahars, part of India's "Scheduled Castes" (i.e. the lowest caste, formerly "the untouchables").

It was during one of these health camps that Ashish found a child with Mycetoma, also known as Madura foot, caused by actinomyces bacteria. It would take several months of antibiotic treatment to fight off the infection.

"We've started building rapport and earning trust," says Dr Abraham. "That is the first step in providing the Musahars with accessible healthcare, including effective treatment of bacterial infections."

Hilary's story

As an oncologist in the UK, Hilary had treated thousands of patients for cancer over the years, but nothing prepared her for her own cancer diagnosis. "Until you're there, you can't stand in those shoes," she says.

Doctors put Hilary on an aggressive treatment regimen that included chemotherapy and a medication meant to boost the production of white blood cells to strengthen the immune system.

"I was very aware of the risk of sepsis," says Hilary, who completed her treatment successfully 17 years ago. "We need to be having conversations with people across society about the dangers of antimicrobial resistance for cancer patients and others."

Read full story

Judith's story

As the head nurse of a neonatal intensive care unit, Judith is always on the look-out for signs of problems, including neonatal sepsis, the body's life-threatening reaction to severe infection. "One moment they seem to be improving and getting better, and in a matter of hours things change," says Judith.

In the case of sepsis, doctors must administer antibiotics quickly. Unfortunately, she and her colleagues have noticed that the standard treatments for neonatal sepsis are increasingly ineffective. Finding good treatment options is becoming harder and harder.

Jemin's story

Just weeks before, the patient was a strong and healthy 25-year-old who farmed and drove a tractor in this region that is known throughout the world for its famous Assam black tea. Now he was unable to walk.

Dr Jemin Webster started running tests and eventually diagnosed the patient with melioidosis, a bacterial infection that is more common in the region than elsewhere.

Jemin administered antibiotics following guidelines, and slowly his young patient began to recover. However Jemin cannot take available antibiotics for granted: "One of the main challenges in treating bacterial infection here is the lack of availability of antibiotics, particularly the narrow-spectrum antibiotics," says Jemin.

Orum's story

When Prudence felt the first contraction, she knew something was wrong. "I was scared. I knew it was not time, but the baby was coming," she recalls. Rushed to the Kawempe Hospital, Prudence gave birth to her son Orum at just 24 weeks.

When doctors discovered Orum had pneumonia, they gave him a first-line antibiotic treatment intravenously. However, Orum did not immediately recover.

It took several rounds of treatment before he was discharged to continue recovery at home. Now Orum is three years old and ready to start school.

Astrid's story

Astrid was in labour at Geneva University Hospitals when she started to shiver and vomit and her temperature soared to 39.9°C. Doctors realized that she had a life-threatening bloodstream infection, and there wasn't a moment to spare.

"I had worried about my baby, but until then, I had never worried about myself," says Astrid.

Soon, Astrid was being treated with antibiotics intravenously, and she gave birth to a healthy baby girl. "Without antibiotics, I would not be here," she says.

Chelsea's story

When a drug-resistant infection swept through her COVID-19 ward, Chelsea found herself on the frontline of the COVID-19 pandemic and confronting an outbreak of drug-resistant Klebsiella pneumonia.

"Not only were patients battling with the virus, they then had to face a secondary infection on top of it, which could often not be treated because of antibiotic resistance," says Chelsea.

"It took COVID-19 to make me realise how crucial it is to have effective antibiotics."