- European Commission DG SANTE highlights EU commitment to coordinated action on antimicrobial resistance.
- 30 illustrators from 30 European countries turn scientific evidence into visual stories through a One Health approach.
- Belgian illustrator Laura Janssens joins the opening with an artwork on how resistance spreads
The outdoor exhibition “Sketching Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR): Thirty stories, One Health” opened on March 10th at Place de la Monnaie in Brussels, where it will remain available to residents and travellers for two weeks. Promoted within the framework of the European Joint Action EU-JAMRAI 2, it brings together 30 illustrations and messages from 30 illustrators from 30 European countries to raise awareness of one of the major public health threats of our time: antimicrobial resistance.
The Brussels stop gives particular visibility to the European Union dimension of the initiative and is supported by EU-JAMRAI 2’s local partner in Belgium, SPF Santé publique, Sécurité de la Chaîne alimentaire. During the opening, Sandra Gallina, Director General for Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE) at the European Commission, delivered a keynote address on the European commitment and coordinated action needed to tackle AMR highlighting.
She reminded the audience that “antimicrobial resistance threatens us all, no matter who we are or where we live,” and praised the initiative for bringing “the science into the street” at Place de la Monnaie, helping bridge the gap between the laboratory and people’s everyday lives and making the invisible visible and accessible.
The official opening was hosted by Professor Marie-Cécile Ploy, EU-JAMRAI 2 coordinator,
and also featured Thomas Janssens, Policy advisor at the Belgian Federal Public Service on Health, Food Chain Safety, Environment, and also an AMR witness, who shared a personal testimony on the human impact of antimicrobial resistance.
Professor Herman Goossens, Chair of the Governance Platform for the Belgian National Action Plan on AMR, also addressed the audience, highlighting national priorities and Belgium’s role as a partner in EU-JAMRAI 2.
Belgian artistic perspective: Laura Janssens
Flemish illustrator Laura Janssens has been selected as Belgium’s representative artist for this innovative EU-JAMRAI 2 project, bringing her distinctive visual storytelling to a public health challenge that often remains unseen. She is an illustrator and cartoonist best known for her autobiographical comic and webcomic “Niet Nu Laura”, where she portrays everyday life with humour, self-reflection and a strong dose of self-mockery.
Featured in the exhibition, Janssens explained how her illustration explores the question “How does resistance spread?”, highlighting that antimicrobial resistance does not recognise frontiers: “Thanks to the project, I have learned how resistant microbes can spread. They travel not only via humans, but also via water, sewage, through the air, and even through our pets, among others. I imagined the microbes as a kind of commando squad with a dangerous mission. With blue tones, I depict normal, daily life. With red tones, I drew the invisible danger.”
Gallery
A travelling exhibition across Europe
The exhibition premiered to the public in late January in Vienna and then travelled recently to Warsaw. Now it is presented with panels in French, Flemish and English and is complemented by an audio guide to provide more information about each illustration and enhance the visitor experience. After Brussels, it will be shown—at least— in Rome and Madrid over the coming months.
The exhibition is part of a broader project involving, over recent months, 30 illustrators from all EU-27 countries, plus Ukraine, Switzerland and Iceland. The initiative, which combines art and science with messages developed from a One Health perspective, recognises the connection between human health, animal health and environmental health. The content is organised into three sections: what antimicrobial resistance is, why it matters, and what we can do to stop it.
AMR: 33,000 deaths each year
Antimicrobial resistance is a serious cross-border threat to public health. In the European Union alone, AMR is estimated to cause over 33,000 deaths each year and generate annual social costs of approximately €1.5 billion. It occurs when microorganisms such as bacteria, viruses, fungi or parasites stop responding to medicines designed to eliminate them. This phenomenon, largely invisible, is advancing in hospitals and homes, on farms and also in the environment, and reduces the effectiveness of antibiotics and other treatments essential to modern medicine.
The campaign has two dimensions: a digital one, launched in November 2025 on the occasion of European Antibiotic Awareness Day and the hashtag #SketchingAntimicrobialResistance, and an in-person one, with public exhibitions in European cities. In addition, the initiative has a multilingual website with the illustrations and messages available in 27 languages, and an illustrated album as a resource for education and awareness-raising.
