CHICAGO (Reuters) — The U.S. government will set up a task force and presidential advisory council to tackle the growing threat of antibiotic resistance to national security.
A deadline of Feb. 15 has been set for outlining specific steps to be taken, White House advisers said.
The White House announced the moves in an executive order calling on 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.
Read Also
Farming Smarter receives financial boost from Alberta government for potato research
Farming Smarter near Lethbridge got a boost to its research equipment, thanks to the Alberta government’s increase in funding for research associations.
“This has been a problem that has been brewing for decades,” said Eric Lander, co-chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST).
The World Health Organization and foreign leaders have raised concerns about antibiotic resistance in bacteria.
In the United States, microbes that have mutated to be resistant to medically important antibiotics are annually linked to 23,000 deaths, two million illnesses and up to $20 billion in direct health-care costs.
PCAST outlined steps the federal government could take in a 78 page report released Sept. 18, 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 days after two U.S. lawmakers called for action to rein in antibiotic use in livestock, in response to a Reuters investigation showing how top U.S. poultry companies have been administering drugs to their flocks.
Public health officials raised concerns the government’s approach will focus more on surveillance and developing drugs rather than on preventing resistance by reducing drug use in livestock and humans.
