US aims to cut antibiotic use in new five year plan to combat antibiotic resistant bacteria

The Obama administration released a five year plan on 27 March to combat the rise of antibiotic resistant bacteria. The White House said that the document, The National Action Plan for Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria,1 would guide federal agencies’ activities until 2020.

The document noted not only that the rise of antibiotic resistance “means we can no longer take for granted the quick and reliable treatment of rare or common bacterial infections” but that it threatens the loss of the “benefits of a range of modern medical procedures—from hip replacements to organ transplants—whose safety depends on our ability to treat bacterial infections that may arise as post-surgical complications.”

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has estimated that antibiotic resistant bacteria are currently responsible for …