Global Antibiotics NGO Honors Professor.
School of Public Health Professor Kevin Outterson has received the 2015 leadership award from the Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics (APUA).
Outterson is professor of health law, ethics & human rights at SPH and the N. Neal Pike Scholar in Health and Disability Law and co-director of the health law program at the School of Law.
He is the author of groundbreaking models to address the economic challenge of developing new antibiotics, and his scholarship and testimony before the United States Congress catalyzes access to effective treatment of bacterial infections.
Annually, “resistant bacteria kill 23 thousand Americans—right now,” Outterson says. “It’s currently a serious threat, and in the future could be much worse.”
Awareness of that threat is vital, he adds. For much of the time since APUA was founded in 1981, says Outterson, “they were a voice crying in the wilderness. Not many people were listening for many, many years.
“I’m very humbled to be recognized by the people who have been working for so long to try to protect public health.”
APUA is a Boston-based, global non-governmental organization dedicated to preserving the power of existing antibiotics, prevention, and increasing access to needed new agents and rapid diagnostics.