Gabriella, who is also a member of the World Health Organization (WHO) Task Force of AMR Survivors, shared her personal experience of dealing with cystic fibrosis and AMR, while addressing the world leaders at the 79th United Nations General Assembly High-Level Meeting on AMR in September this year.
"This disease [cystic fibrosis] makes me highly susceptible to infections, and I am running out of antibiotics to treat them. Overtime, the bacteria that have harboured in my lungs have become resistant to medicines. I have experienced countless episodes of drug-resistant infections," told Gabriella to CNS (Citizen News Service) founder Shobha Shukla while speaking in AMR Dialogues on the sidelines of UNHLM on AMR.
She has spent weeks in hospitals throughout her life, getting antibiotics for these infections that are becoming increasingly difficult to treat.
"It has been a terrifying experience. I have to take treatment for these infections even if they are drug-resistant, knowing well that I am helpless against these tiny little microbes that are invading my body. Because of this, I share my story and advocate to bring together stakeholders to help prevent AMR", said Gabriella.
Although she was born with the disease that made her prone to cycles of lung infections since a very early age, Gabriella got better understanding of the science behind AMR when she began working in a microbiology laboratory. She looked at AMR in the environment, river waters, and other environmental samples. "These experiences and the merging of my work in the microbiology laboratory with my personal lived experience of dealing with AMR, is what spurred me to rise up and share my experience -and call for change."
In 2019 she was dealing with an acute infection which was not getting better even with 'last resort' medicines. Then she resorted to an experimental treatment with bacteriophages, which are viruses that attack bacteria. Although experimental, the bacteriophage therapy helped her with treatment at that time.
We need new person-centred therapies and solutions
Gabriella best understands the fear, desperation and devastation of people who have infections that have stopped responding to medicines. The need to have new therapies and person-centred solutions is acute. But equally important is to stop the misuse and overuse of medicines we have today, says Gabriella. Use medicines responsibly in all sectors - human health, plant health, food and agriculture. Also, we have to save the environment so that AMR is not spreading by the way we are living.
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