BU’s Center on Forced Displacement is studying the link between environmental pollution and drug-resistant infections among refugees and asylum seekers
Antimicrobial resistance is one of the biggest threats to global health. Lifesaving drugs are losing their power as bacteria build fresh defenses against them. But not everyone is impacted equally. Among those potentially at increased risk of a deadly infection are refugees, asylum seekers, and other people displaced from their homes—their health often beset by overcrowded living conditions, poor sanitation, and barriers to care.
A new collaboration between Boston University and the World Health Organization (WHO) aims to investigate some of the issues fueling drug-resistant infections among the world’s most vulnerable populations—and find ways to better monitor and respond to the problem.
The five-year agreement between BU’s Center on Forced Displacement and the WHO’s Cairo, Egypt–based Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean will support a study of how environmental pollution might fuel antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in displaced communities. In announcing the linkup, the WHO lauded BU’s “interdisciplinary research expertise in displacement, environmental science, and community‑engaged fieldwork.”
The WHO recently reported that AMR jumped 40 percent between 2018 and 2023; it’s previously said the phenomenon is directly responsible for more than a million deaths a year and contributes to close to five million deaths.
“We are very fortunate to embark on this partnership, and we believe that we are well suited to carry out these projects because of the interdisciplinary nature of our center,” says Professor Muhammad Zaman (BME, MSE), director of BU’s Center on Forced Displacement and author of Infected: How Power, Politics, and Privilege Use Science Against the World’s Most Vulnerable (New Press, 2025). “WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean office has rich experience dealing with complex health challenges in the region, and expertise in understanding the health systems of different countries. We have scientists, social scientists, engineers, and public health professionals, and will bring our expertise in basic science and discovery research.”