AMR survivor: How a fungal infection left me unable to work for five years
By Ojoma Akor
Rob Purdie spent years battling a drug-resistant fungal infection that progressed to meningitis, cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to treat, and left him with lifelong medication needs. He is now calling for urgent action to end the silence surrounding antimicrobial resistance.
An initially misdiagnosed fungal infection that progressed to meningitis, wiped out five years of earning capacity and left him dependent on lifelong medication has turned Rob Purdie into a powerful advocate for survivors of antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
Purdie, an AMR survivor and member of the World Health Organization’s Task Force of AMR Survivors, shared his experience at a press conference organized by the WHO and European Parliament member Martin Häusling to mark an exhibition titled AMR: The Human Stories Behind a Silent Pandemic.
The exhibition, held at the European Parliament from September 28 to October 2, 2026, featured accounts of people affected by antimicrobial resistance across Europe.
Purdie said his experience demonstrated how delayed diagnosis, limited treatment options, and the severe side effects of medicines could leave patients with consequences extending far beyond the initial infection.
“My story is a little different. You hear a lot about antibiotic resistance in the context of AMR. I actually have an antifungal-resistant personal story to tell,” he said.
His ordeal began in January 2012 with what appeared to be an ordinary headache.
After the pain worsened over a week, he sought medical attention and was diagnosed with a sinus infection. He received a 10-day course of antibiotics but continued to deteriorate.
A second doctor made the same diagnosis and prescribed a different antibiotic, which also failed to improve his condition.
Only when Purdie consulted an ear, nose and throat specialist did a diagnostic investigation challenge the earlier assessments.
The specialist examined an X-ray of his skull and told him he did not have a sinus infection.
However, Purdie’s symptoms continued to worsen. The headaches became debilitating, leaving him unable to tolerate even small amounts of light. He eventually developed vision problems and went to a hospital emergency department.
A doctor performed a lumbar puncture, leading to his admission to hospital.
On February 14, 2012, Purdie received the diagnosis: a fungal infection that had progressed to meningitis.
He said earlier diagnostic testing might have prevented the infection from reaching that advanced stage.
Years of treatment, mounting complications
Purdie was discharged from hospital in March 2012 and placed on antifungal medication. By then, he said, his hospital bills had reached approximately US$250,000.
His condition, coccidioidomycosis, commonly known as valley fever, did not respond to the first antifungal drug prescribed.
The infection subsequently failed to respond to two additional antifungal treatments.
With few antifungal medicines available, his doctors adopted a salvage treatment approach, combining medications to control the infection.
One of the drugs, amphotericin B, was administered through a port in his head. Although the combination helped control the fungal infection, Purdie said the treatment caused severe side effects.
He explained that one of the antifungal medicines increased his sensitivity to sunlight and contributed to the development of squamous cell carcinoma, a form of skin cancer, in 2015.
He has since had five additional squamous cell carcinomas removed.
Following the cancer diagnosis, he was switched to another antifungal medicine, which he has continued taking since around 2016.
More than a decade after the initial diagnosis, Purdie still takes four pills daily to keep the infection under control.
The medication has not cured the disease.
“None of the drugs we currently have can ‘cure’ the fungal infection I have — they can only control it,” he said, describing a treatment journey shared by other patients living with persistent infections and long-term medication needs.
Losing his livelihood and financial security
Beyond the physical consequences, Purdie said the infection fundamentally changed his family’s financial circumstances.
As the sole income earner for his household of his wife and two children, he lost his ability to work for about five years.
The experience forced him to rely on social safety nets after previously being a productive member of his community.
Although he eventually regained some financial stability, he said the prolonged illness had significantly affected his ability to save for retirement.
“Imagine going from being a productive member of your community to relying on social safety nets — and how hard it is to get off those safety nets once you are on them,” he said.
He also highlighted the psychological burden associated with serious infections and chronic illness, noting that patients and their families often contend with emotional distress alongside medical and financial challenges.
For Purdie, the experience illustrates why AMR should not be viewed merely as a scientific or technical problem.
It is also a social and economic crisis that can affect patients’ ability to work, support their families and maintain their quality of life.
WHO: Drug-resistant infections claim one million lives annually
Speaking at the press conference, the acting director of the WHO’s Antimicrobial Resistance Department, Dr Jean-Pierre Nyemazi, said bacterial antimicrobial resistance was responsible for approximately one million deaths annually.
He said this amounted to about two deaths every minute, underscoring the urgency of tackling a problem that affects human health, animals, food systems, economies and the environment.
“AMR affects people, animals, plants and food systems, but also our economies and the environment as part of this ecosystem,” Nyemazi said.
He explained that drug-resistant pathogens can spread across borders and between animals and humans, making coordinated action across sectors essential.
According to him, antimicrobial resistance also increases healthcare expenditure by prolonging hospital stays and forcing family members to leave their jobs to care for sick relatives.
He called for governments to strengthen primary healthcare, improve access to timely diagnosis, enforce regulations governing antimicrobial use and educate the public about responsible medicine use.
Nyemazi also stressed the need for stronger infection prevention and control, vaccination, water, sanitation and hygiene services, improved animal husbandry and environmental protection.
He said the WHO and its Quadripartite partners — the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the United Nations Environment Program and the World Organization for Animal Health — are working to strengthen a coordinated One Health response.
The approach recognizes that the health of people, animals and the environment is interconnected.
Nyemazi said WHO Member States approved an updated Global Action Plan on AMR at the World Health Assembly in May 2026, providing a framework for action over the next decade.
He added that the plan places greater emphasis on prevention, multisectoral governance, measurable targets and behavioral change.
Calls for responsible antibiotic use
Häusling, who organized the European Parliament exhibition with the WHO, warned against inappropriate antibiotic use in human medicine and animal production.
He said antibiotics were sometimes administered to entire groups of animals when only one animal was sick, increasing unnecessary exposure to the medicines.
He also raised concerns about the use of medically important, last-resort antibiotics in food-producing animals and the potential spread of resistant pathogens through wastewater and the environment.
Häusling called for more responsible prescribing practices, reduced unnecessary antimicrobial use and greater public awareness to ensure AMR receives sustained attention from policymakers.
He said the exhibition was meant to show that antimicrobial resistance could affect anyone, regardless of socioeconomic background or circumstances.
“AMR can destroy families and livelihoods,” he said, pledging to keep the issue on the European Parliament’s agenda.
‘We cannot afford to lose this war’
For Purdie, raising awareness is central to preventing other patients from suffering similarly.
He argued that AMR has remained largely invisible partly because many affected patients have died, while others are living with complex, long-term consequences that are rarely discussed publicly.
He urged journalists to move beyond technical discussions of resistance and inappropriate prescriptions to tell stories that reveal the human consequences of infections that no longer respond to available medicines.
“The more we talk about AMR, the more people we will find who have been affected and who can then be given a voice,” he said.
Purdie also called for greater investment in diagnostic tools, vaccines, new antimicrobial medicines, and behavioral change, while emphasizing that responsible use must protect existing treatments.
He noted that developing antifungal medicines with new mechanisms of action can take decades, making it essential to act now to preserve the effectiveness of available treatments.
He said governments and health systems must not wait for new medicines before addressing avoidable infections and inappropriate antimicrobial use.
“Unfortunately, this is not a war we can win, but it is not a war we can afford to lose,” he said.
As the world prepares for World AMR Awareness Week, scheduled for November 18–24, 2026, the WHO has chosen the theme One Health, One Action, Prevent AMR Now.
For Purdie, however, the campaign must amount to more than awareness.
It must translate into timely diagnosis, appropriate treatment, stronger infection prevention and a healthcare system that recognizes the human cost of antimicrobial resistance before another infection becomes a lifelong struggle.
He urged the world to remove the word “silent” from the phrase “silent pandemic” and put affected people at the center of the global response.
