White House Declares War on Three Antibiotic-Resistant ‘Superbugs’
Trying to avert what some clinicians are calling “the post-antibiotic era,” the White House has declared war on three antibiotic-resistant “superbugs.”
Drug-resistant bacteria have caused 23,000 deaths and more than 2 million illnesses in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Last Friday, President Obama released his National Action Plan for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria, with the ambitious goal of reducing “inappropriate antibiotic use by 50 percent in outpatient settings and by 20 percent in inpatient settings” over the next five years.
Under the National Action Plan, all acute-care hospitals in the nation will be required to improve their infection control rates while simultaneously reducing the use of commonly prescribed antibiotics whose overuse is blamed for the rise of drug-resistant strains.
By 2020, the White House hopes to slash in half the infection rate of three superbugs currently listed by the CDC as “urgent threats” to public health. (Read more from “White House Declares War on Three Antibiotic-Resistant ‘Superbugs’” HERE)
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