IIDR Members Assist WHO with Antibiotics Initiative

Two members of the Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research (IIDR) will be in Geneva this week to assist the World Health Organization (WHO) in updating its List of Essential Medicines.

Dr. Mark Loeb, professor in the Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine, and Dr. Dominik Mertz, assistant professor in the Department of Medicine, will join an international panel of antibiotics experts to establish a comprehensive list of antibiotics for use in low-, middle- and high-income countries.

The panel, appropriately named the Antibiotic Working Group, will focus on antibiotics for prophylaxis and treatment of the most relevant bacterial infections in humans.

“We will work closely to build an essential list of antibiotics that all countries around the world should have on board, explains Dr. Loeb, who will chair the two-day meeting. “This will not only promote optimal care for patients, but also reduce the threat of resistance.”