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"The CDC and 25 other organizations concerned with public health and patient care issued a consensus statement Tuesday highlighting the issue of antibiotic resistance as part of Get Smart About Antibiotics Week.The statement serves as a commitment to address the growing problem with an acknowledgement of a shared responsibility on the part of a wide range of individuals  --  including healthcare personnel, hospital administrators, policymakers, patients, and those working in medical centers, universities, and pharmaceutical companies.It&#039;s also designed to encourage appropriate antibiotic use both in humans and in agricultural settings, according to Arjun Srinivasan, MD, associate director for healthcare-associated infection prevention programs for the CDC.We must remind ourselves that antibiotics are a shared resource, and every individual should consider how each prescription or use of antibiotics impacts the overall effectiveness of the antibiotic arsenal, Srinivasan said on a conference call for reporters held Tuesday by the CDC, the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics &amp;amp; Policy (CDDEP), and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. How we use and protect these precious drugs must fundamentally change.Other collaborators on the consensus statement included the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Public Health Association, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the Society of Hospital Medicine, and the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America.In addition to the release of the consensus statement, the CDDEP released new data from its Extending the Cure project, which looks at patterns of antibiotic use and resistance across the U.S.The good news, according to CDDEP director Ramanan Laxminarayan, PhD, is that the average number of prescriptions per 1,000 people declined by 17% from 1999 to 2010. In 2010, the national average was 801 prescriptions per 1,000 people.However, he said, trends varied in different regions. States in Appalachia and the Gulf Coast tended to have smaller declines  --  and even some increases  --  in antibiotic prescribing during the study period.The highest rates of prescribing were seen in Kentucky, West Virginia, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Louisiana, and the lowest were seen in Alaska, Hawaii, California, Oregon, and Washington.Other concerning findings included the declining effectiveness of drugs used to treat urinary tract infections and the greater use of broader-spectrum antibiotics like fluoroquinolones and macrolides, which could accelerate the development of bacterial resistance.Laxminarayan noted that antibiotic resistance is growing faster than the speed at which new, more effective antibiotics can be developed.Our only hope lies in simultaneously making better use of existing drugs while also looking for new drugs, he said. We&#039;ve got to remember that each of us has a role to play in preserving antibiotic effectiveness and keeping these deadly microbes in check if we really do want our children and our grandchildren to benefit from this precious resource."
<https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/generalinfectiousdisease/35933>