ID medicine is fundamental to the future of global health.
The COVID-19 pandemic brought the critical work of ID specialists into sharp focus for the first time for many Americans, yet ID professionals have been saving and improving lives for decades.
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Around the world, infectious diseases claim the lives of 17 million people every year – and every year,
new and potentially dangerous organisms emerge. In 2019, a novel coronavirus brought us COVID-19. Even known pathogens can become resistant to treatment.
ID specialists take on life-threatening challenges like these and others – developing life-saving vaccines, providing leadership on public health challenges like antimicrobial resistance and working on the front lines of outbreaks like Ebola, Zika and COVID-19.
Yet, the rate and reach of new ID threats is outpacing the number of clinicians and researchers entering the field.
Without a robust and diverse pipeline of physicians, researchers and innovators entering the field of ID medicine, we face an inevitable health care crisis.