A reading of Infectious Futures

By Nina Cromeyer Dieke

Last week Dublin hosted the 1st National Patient Safety Office Conference to formally launch the Office as part of Ireland’s Department of Health. The Office will focus on playing a leading role in guiding policy around patient health and safety.

The Conference brought together different stakeholders working in healthcare delivery to discuss topics including hospital hand hygiene, MRSA and sepsis. Videos of all the speakers’ presentations is available on the NPSO website.

We were invited to present the Prize and to introduce a special reading of two stories from our Infectious Futures series. The readings were by acclaimed Irish actress Cathy Belton, who really brought to life the chilling post-antibiotic apocalypse scenarios envisioned by the authors. Cathy selected Causes, by Lydia Nicholas, and Transmission, by Tim Maughan.

Cathy Belton is an Irish actress who has appeared in a wide range of stage, film, radio and television productions. Her stage work includes many productions in the National Theatre of Ireland and Gate Theatre. She currently stars as Patricia Henessy in TV programme Red Rock, for which she received a Best Actress nomination at the 2015 IFTA Television Awards. Films include Philomena and A Little Chaos.