A new bill being considered by the Senate seeks to formulate a concrete strategy against antibiotic resistance and lower the inappropriate use of antibiotics which is fueling the condition’s rise.
The legislation comes from U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and has been dubbed the Strategies to Address Antimicrobial Resistance (STAAR) Act. Its aims have already met with the approval of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), who wish to see improved federal responses to the growing health threat antimicrobial resistance (AMR) pose. In all, the bill calls for reinforcement of prevention, detection and tracking capabilities alike. It also pushes for stewardship programs in health care facilities that will focus on lowering unnecessary use of antibiotics and improving patient outcomes, while strengthening research into AMR. The end goal of the latter is the development of evidence-based techniques and tools to combat the threat.
“AMR poses a significant threat to patient safety, public health and even national security,” IDSA said in their response. “A well-coordinated, sustained federal response is necessary to improve prevention, detection, tracking and treatment of infections caused by dangerous multidrug-resistant pathogens.”
The growing prevalence of AMR can be seen in something as seemingly simple as influenza deaths. Many of those deaths, it has been found, are caused not by flu itself but by secondary bacterial pneumonia–something resistance is making trickier to combat. IDSA points out that wounds and burns can also become quickly infected, and as such, incidents of mass casualties could see a vast rise in AMR cases that exacerbate death tolls.
“Because so many medical procedures—from cancer chemotherapy to joint replacements, from solid organ and bone marrow transplants to the care of preterm infants—rely upon the availability of safe and effective antibiotics, prevalent, resistant pathogens will dramatically turn back much of modern medicine’s progress if the status quo continues,” IDSA said.