The threat of a looming “post-antibiotic era” has been detailed for years in media reports, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the nation has finally reached that tipping point.
“If you define a post-antibiotic era as a day in which we have patients who develop infections that we cannot treat ... we're there,” Dr. Arjun Srinivasan, the CDC's associate director for healthcare-asssociated infection-prevention programs, told Modern Healthcare.
The federal agency has responded by pushing providers to use antibiotics responsibly and to better coordinate care to prevent infections like carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae and Clostridium difficile from spreading from one facility to another.
The implementation of antibiotic stewardship programs—coordinated hospital efforts dedicated to improving antibiotic use—will be among the many topics broached at the CDC's International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases this week in Atlanta. There are 1,400 attendees currently registered. The meeting was originally scheduled for March 2015 but rescheduled because of the Ebola response.
“Outbreaks are inevitable,” the CDC's Thomas Skinner said, “What is not inevitable is for outbreaks to become epidemics, and for regional epidemics to become global pandemics.”
The CDC is optimistic that major national initiatives are helping to turn the tide. Last year, President Barack Obama pledged $1.2 billion to improve antibiotic stewardship, as well as surveillance and reporting capabilities and to spark innovation in the human health and agricultural sectors.
“We hope this national strategy and action plan will galvanize and coordinate efforts across the country,” Srinivasan said.
