US task force will tackle growing threat of antibiotic resistance
The White House announced the moves in an executive order charging the secretaries of Defence, Agriculture and Health and Human Services to establish the task force, which will advise on steps to preserve the effectiveness of the remaining medically important antibiotics available to treat humans.
“This has been a problem that has been brewing for decades,” Eric Lander, co-chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), which advised the White House on measures, said at a press conference on Thursday.
The World Health Organisation and leaders of several countries have raised concerns about antibiotic resistance in bacteria.
In the United States alone, such “super bugs”, microbes that have mutated to be resistant to medically important antibiotics, are annually linked to 23,000 deaths and 2 million illnesses, and up to $20bn in direct healthcare costs.
PCAST outlined steps the federal government could take in a 78-page report released on Thursday, including offering incentives to encourage development of new antibiotics; finding alternatives to human-relevant antibiotics for use by livestock producers, and greater surveillance of antibiotic use in agriculture.
The report comes just days after two US lawmakers called for action to rein in antibiotic use in livestock, in response to a Reuters investigation showing how top US poultry companies have been administering drugs to their flocks.
Public health officials have raised concerns that the government’s approach will focus more on surveillance, developing new drugs and rolling out improved diagnostic solutions and less on preventing resistance by reducing drug usage in livestock and by human patients.
“The overuse of antibiotics on the farm clearly affects human health, and substantial changes in the use of antibiotics in agricultural settings is necessary in order to preserve this precious resource for human medicine,” said Representative Louise Slaughter, a Democrat of New York who introduced legislation last year that would require the disclosure of data on antibiotic use.
Earlier this week she urged lawmakers to address the issue at a House subcommittee hearing on antibiotic resistance.
“I maintain that voluntarily asking industry to change labels is not enough to protect human health,” Ms Slaughter said in remarks emailed to Reuters.
* Reuters
