A National Strategy?

Human beings are locked in a perpetual arms race with bacteria that constantly adapt to whatever antibiotics we throw at them. Since they hand off these adaptations as “weapons” to other non-resistant species through DNA transfer and essentially recruit new members to the superbug army it is time to start leading a charge against these microbial invaders.

Who better to do that than the commander-in-chief himself? On September 18^th President Obama signed an executive order to establish a strategy to deal with this looming health crisis. This order was written after the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology submitted a 65-page report to the President for consideration.

The national strategy includes ideas for the development of new drugs, more regulation in the dispensing of existing ones, and improvements in tracking the bacteria that are resistant to them. This is the first time the White House has directly addressed this issue. The President created a national task force composed of officials from Health and Human Services. He also required that the task force provide a 5-year action plan by February 15, 2015.

Can this national strategy be the first step in winning this war?

Biologists and health experts who criticize the strategy state very compelling points. New drugs, regulation and oversight cannot account for the fact that Americans use more antibiotics that any other industrialized countries.

The executive order also completely ignores a very important contribution to antibiotic resistance: agriculture. The FDA estimates that over 70 percent of antibiotics in the US are given to animals and that this amount is six times that of Denmark and Norway. These drugs are used to prevent infections in closely packed livestock and to increase growth rates.

What use are brand new drugs and oversight of resistant species when the antibiotics that create these bacteria are present in every bite of chicken or sip of milk we take? Biologists and health experts are disappointed that the White House has not taken any steps to cut back this abuse of antibiotics in large-scale factory farming.

         The CDC states that this constant exposure to antibiotics from food can lead to selective pressure on bacteria to evolve a certain way. We are essentially challenging these organisms to survive an antibiotic-saturated world. The data gathered over the years shows that they are more than capable of accepting this challenge several times over. A timeline created by the CDC shows that as soon as a new antibiotic is introduced into the population it only takes a few short years for a strain that is resistant to the new antibiotic to emerge and spread.

If it is the administration’s intention to overwhelm these organisms with new “miracle” drugs then it just means that we are providing them with a new challenge. Natural selection will ensure that they will succeed in these endeavors too.

        

         After observing all the evidence that shows how disastrous this situation can be for the future, can a solution ever be possible? A solution where you can eliminate bacterial infections AND ensure that the bacteria don’t get wise to the plan and evolve. Several experiments have been done and an innovative new approach is that fights fire with fire is possible. However, that is a potential topic for another blog post!

References

Obama Administration Takes Actions to Combat Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria. (n.d.). Retrieved November 16, 2014, from http://www.whitehouse.gov/embeds/footer

Tavernise, S. (2014, September 18). U.S. Aims to Curb Peril of Antibiotic Resistance. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/19/health/us-lays-out-strategy-to-combat-crisis-of-antibiotic-resistance.html

Threat Report 2013 | Antimicrobial Resistance | CDC. (n.d.). Retrieved November 12, 2014, from http://www.cdc.gov/drugresistance/threat-report-2013/index.html