The White House has instructed the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to reduce the incidence of antibiotic-resistant infections by 2020. The reduction is part of a plan to prevent patient deaths and curb the overuse of antibiotics.
The CDC estimates that bacterial infections that are resistant to antibiotics cause 23,000 deaths and 2 million illnesses each year. The World Health Organization says that bacterial resistance may lead to a point where minor infections can kill because they resist all known antibiotics.
"This is one of those problems that doesn't always rise to the top of people's day-to-day concerns until somebody in the family is impacted," said President Barack Obama on Friday. "We take antibiotics for granted for a lot of illnesses that can be deadly or debilitating."
Certain bacteria have evolved into superbugs, such as Enterobacteriaceae that are resistant to an antibiotic called carbapenem. Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) are called a "nightmare bacteria" because it is resistant to even the strongest antibiotics.
Reducing the incidence of these infections can be done. In three years, hospitals in Chicago have cut the rate of CRE infections in half in acute-care hospitals, which tend to have resistant strains of common bacteria. They did this by creating a program that testing all patients for CRE infections. Patients who developed CRE were isolated in a private room or in a ward with other CRE-infected patients. Healthcare workers wore protective gowns while tending to them, using procedures similar to those used for patients with Ebola. All infected patients were bathed with an antiseptic solution.
Advocacy groups have urged the White House to go further and limit the use of antibiotics that are used to promote growth in poultry and livestock and prevent disease caused by crowded conditions. Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY), who is a microbiologist, has sponsored legislation to stop routine use of antibiotics in farm animals.
