The Pfizer Foundation has announced twenty grants totaling $2 million to organizations working to address health challenges related to infectious disease, including the increasing threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

Managed in partnership with Innovations in Healthcare, the foundation's Global Health Innovation Grants program provides grants of $100,000 and technical assistance in support of efforts aimed at reducing health disparities, strengthening health systems, and combating infectious diseases in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. According to the foundation, infectious diseases are responsible for an estimated 8.4 million deaths every year, with the toll highest among young children and marginalized populations in underserved countries.

Grant recipients include UE LifeSciences in India, which will launch an AI-enabled, hand-held, wireless colposcope that enables healthcare providers in communities with limited infrastructure to detect precancerous lesions in patients; Mali-based Muso, which will use the funds to expand a clinical staff training program and improve the quality of care it provides; and the Group for Technical Assistance in Nepal, in support of the development, implementation, and evaluation of its Global Learning in AMR e-learning platform.

"Mounting infectious disease outbreaks and the threat of large-scale antimicrobial resistance are increasingly becoming some of the most challenging global health needs of our time," said Pfizer Foundation president Caroline Roan. "We are dedicated to working with individuals and organizations in local communities as they rethink and scale innovative solutions to fight infectious diseases from the ground up, providing effective solutions to those patients most in need."

(Photo credit: Muso)