Dive Brief:
- On Friday, the White House released a National Action Plan for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria.
- The 63-page plan was developed by a task force with representatives from at least 12 federal agencies.
- Although the plan's primary purpose is to guide US governmental activities, it is also designed to guide actions by public health, healthcare and veterinary agencies.
Dive Insight:
The National Action Plan has five goals: 1) to slow the emergence of resistant bacteria and prevent the spread of resistant infections; 2) to strengthen national one-health surveillance efforts to combat resistance; 3) to advance development and use of rapid and innovative diagnostic tests for the identification and characterization of resistant bacteria; 4) to accelerate basic and applied research and development for new antibiotics, other therapeutics and vaccines; and 5) to improve international collaboration and capacities for antibiotic resistance prevention, surveillance, control and antibiotic research and development.
The plan takes aim at pathogens that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has deemed serious or urgent threats, including Clostridium difficile, Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.