Battling the resistance: A Wknd interview with Dr Abdul Ghafur

For 15 years, he has waged a war on antimicrobial resistance. Now he is on the jury of the £10 million Longitude Prize. ‘These inventions give me hope,’ he says

Fifteen million lives. That is the global toll of antimicrobial resistance, annually, says Dr Abdul Ghafur.

“My mission is to convince people of just how big a problem this is.”

Dr Ghafur, 53, works at the Apollo Cancer Centre in Chennai, and specialises in treating patients with persistent or life-threatening infections. These are typically people who have had their immunity battered by chemotherapy. They are particularly vulnerable to the growing number of superbugs, the virulent and antibiotic-resistant forms of disease