Understanding the Economics of Microbial Threats

Microbial threats, including endemic and emerging infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance, can cause not only substantial health consequences but also enormous disruption to economic activity worldwide. While scientific advances have undoubtedly strengthened our ability to respond to and mitigate the mortality of infectious disease threats, events over the past two decades have illustrated our continued vulnerability to economic consequences from these threats.To assess the current understanding of the interaction of infectious disease threats with economic activity and suggest potential new areas of research, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine planned a 1.5-day public workshop on understanding the economics of microbial threats. This workshop built on prior work of the Forum on Microbial Threats and aimed to help transform current knowledge into immediate action. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.Table of ContentsFront Matter1 Introduction2 The Economics of Global Health and Microbial Threats3 The Economic Cost of Endemic Infectious Diseases4 The Economics and Modeling of Emerging Infectious Diseases andBiological Risks5 The Cost Dimensions of Antimicrobial Resistance6 Investing in National Preparedness Initiatives Against MicrobialThreats7 Accelerating Research and Development of Antimicrobial MedicalProducts8 Reimagining Sustainable Investments to Counter Microbial Threats9 Looking to the Future: Potential Next Steps for Using Economicsto Manage Microbial Threats10 Closing RemarksReferencesAppendix A: Workshop Statement of TaskAppendix B: Workshop AgendaAppendix C: Biographical Sketches of Workshop Speakers andModerators