|Videos|July 22, 2020

A World Without Antibiotics? Why Patients Should Care About Resistance

Dr. Pol Vandenbroucke describes the individual and collective risks associated with rising antibiotic resistance.

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, it was difficult to articulate the great importance of careful prescribing to patients who request antibiotic treatment. Common misnomers like "strong antibiotic" point to widespread confusion on how antibiotics function.

Dr. Pol Vandenbroucke, Chief Medical Officer for Pfizer’s hospital business unit, describes the individual and collective risks associated with antimicrobial resistance from a patient perspective.

Dr. Vandenbroucke then proceeds to compare the ramifications with the impact of COVID-19 on travel and other social activity.


Related to this article

Cefiderocol Continues to Show Activity Against Resistant Gram-Negative Infections
Shionogi data presented at IDWeek 2026 demonstrated a 76.7% clinical response with cefiderocol in carbapenem-resistant respiratory infections and high in vitro activity against resistant P aeruginosa VAP isolates. Christine Slover, PharmD, vice president, Infectious Diseases US Medical Affairs, Shionogi, offers insights on the data as well as clinical considerations for providers when weighing the antibiotic for patients.
Household Contacts Drive Most Hepatitis B Exposures in Young Children
Karen B. Jacobson, MD, MPH, of Kaiser Permanente Northern California, presented data at IDWeek 2026 showing 58.2% of children younger than five years exposed to active hepatitis B in the home were exposed by someone other than their birth mother, a risk maternal screening alone would miss under the CDC’s revised birth dose recommendation.