CLF Experts Discuss Cost of Antibiotic Resistance with Congress Recap of the Briefing
Panelists’ Presentations CLF hosted a packed Congressional briefing room yesterday on Capitol Hill, which brought together leading experts in economics, public health and public policy and Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY), a leading voice on antibiotic resistance, to discuss the impact of resistant infections on the U.S. healthcare system and the need to phase out inappropriate use of antibiotics as growth promoters in the production of food animals. The Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future (CLF) hosted the event with Rep. Slaughter. The economic burden of antibiotic resistance on the American healthcare system is measurable and staggering. In 2008, the Institute of Medicine reported that antibiotic-resistant bacteria, including MRSA, cost the U.S. $4-5 billion a year. Accordingly, the CDC estimates that 2 million Americans contract resistant infections and out of those, 90,000 die. | CLF Director Robert Lawrence addresses packed briefing room. |
Rep. Slaughter, sponsor of the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act /H.R. 1549/S.619, also known as PAMTA, made remarks about the bill and the Pew report’s findings during today’s discussion. “Every year, two million Americans acquire bacterial infections during their hospital stay and 70 percent of their infections will be resistant to the drugs commonly used to treat them. As a result, every day 38 patients in our hospitals will die of those infections,” said the Representative.
“When we go to the grocery store to choose dinner we should not have to worry that our food will expose our family to potentially deadly bacteria that will no longer respond to our medical treatments,” Rep. Slaughter told the standing room only briefing. “Unless we act now, we will unwittingly be permitting animals to serve as incubators for ever more resistant bacteria. It is time for Congress to stand with the scientists…with the World Health Organization, the American Medical Association, The National Academy of Science…and do something about this. We cannot afford to have medicines that could save our lives become obsolete.” Robert Lawrence, MD, Director of The Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future, led the briefing. Other panelists included: - Michael Blackwell, DVMC, MPH, former Vice Chair, Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production; Assistant Surgeon General, USPHS (ret.); Former Dean, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN
- Ramanan Laxminarayan, PhD, MPH-Senior Fellow, Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics, and Policy, Resources for the Future, Washington, DC
- Robert Martin-Senior officer, Pew Environmental Group; former Executive Director, Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production, Washington, DC
- Lance Price, PhD- Director, Center for Metagenomics and Human Health, Translational Genomics Research Institute, Flagstaff, AZ
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