The National Strategy for Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria, published in 2014, sets out a plan for government work to mitigate the emergence and spread of resistant bacteria. Direction on the implementation of this strategy is provided in five-year national action plans, the first covering 2015 to 2020, and the second covering 2020 to 2025. Combating Antimicrobial Resistance and Protecting the Miracle of Modern Medicine evaluates progress made against the national strategy. This report discusses ways to improve detection of resistant infections and estimate the risk to human health from environmental sources of resistance. In addition, the report considers the effect of agricultural practices on human and animal health and animal welfare and ways these practices could be improved, and advises on key drugs and diseases for which animal-specific test breakpoints are needed.

The use of drugs in food animal production has resulted in benefits throughout the food industry; however, their use has also raised public health safety concerns. The Use of Drugs in Food Animals provides an overview of why and how drugs are used in the major food-producing animal industriesâ€"poultry, dairy, beef, swine, and aquaculture. The volume discusses the prevalence of human pathogens in foods of animal origin. It also addresses the transfer of resistance in animal microbes to human pathogens and the resulting risk of human disease. The committee offers analysis and insight into these areas: Monitoring of drug residues. The book provides a brief overview of how the FDA and USDA monitor drug residues in foods of animal origin and describes quality assurance programs initiated by the poultry, dairy, beef, and swine industries. Antibiotic resistance. The committee reports what is known about this controversial problem and its potential effect on human health. The volume also looks at how drug use may be minimized with new approaches in genetics, nutrition, and animal management.

Years of using, misusing, and overusing antibiotics and other antimicrobial drugs has led to the emergence of multidrug-resistant 'superbugs.' The IOM's Forum on Microbial Threats held a public workshop April 6-7 to discuss the nature and sources of drug-resistant pathogens, the implications for global health, and the strategies to lessen the current and future impact of these superbugs.

The epic history of how antibiotics were born, saving millions of lives and creating a vast new industry known as Big Pharma. As late as the 1930s, virtually no drug intended for sickness did any good; doctors could set bones, deliver babies, and offer palliative care. That all changed in less than a generation with the discovery and development of a new category of medicine known as antibiotics. By 1955, the age-old evolutionary relationship between humans and microbes had been transformed, trivializing once-deadly infections. William Rosen captures this revolution with all its false starts, lucky surprises, and eccentric characters. He explains why, given the complex nature of bacteria—and their ability to rapidly evolve into new forms—the only way to locate and test potential antibiotic strains is by large-scale, systematic, trial-and-error experimentation. Organizing that research needs large, well-funded organizations and businesses, and so our entire scientific-industrial complex, built around the pharmaceutical company, was born. Timely, engrossing, and eye-opening, Miracle Cure is a must-read science narrative—a drama of enormous range, combining science, technology, politics, and economics to illuminate the reasons behind one of the most dramatic changes in humanity’s relationship with nature since the invention of agriculture ten thousand years ago.

Antibiotics are familiar drugs to us all, so familiar that we may take them for granted. They allow us to survive life-threatening infections, and allow us to protect the animals we farm for food. Many antibiotics have now become ineffective against common diseases, and there are few alternative treatments to replace them. In this topical popular science book, Laura Bowater, Professor of Microbiology Education and Engagement at Norwich Medical School, considers the past, present and uncertain future of antibiotics. This book begins by looking back at how infectious diseases, such as smallpox and the plague, were able to wreak havoc on populations before the discovery of the first antibiotics. These then revolutionised the medical world. In an engaging and accessible style, Professor Bowater takes the reader through how antibiotics are made, how bacteria are able to mutate and develop resistance and she explains why there is now a lack of new antibiotic drugs coming to market. What will a future of continued antibiotic resistance look like? How can human activities prevent the rise of ‘superbugs'? Professor Bowater highlights the need for universal cooperation in order to tackle this global health challenge, which, if not addressed, could transport us back to the medical dark ages.

Our ability to treat common bacterial infections with antibiotics goes back only 65 years. However, the authors of this report make it clear that sustaining a supply of effective and affordable antibiotics cannot be without changes to the incentives facing patients, physicians, hospitals, insurers, and pharmaceutical manufacturers. In fact, increasing resistance to these drugs is already exacting a terrible price. Every day in the United States, approximately 172 men, women, and children die from infections caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria in hospitals alone. Beyond those deaths, antibiotic resistance is costing billions of dollars through prolonged hospital stays and the need for doctors to resort to ever more costly drugs to use as substitute treatments. Extending the Cure presents the problem of antibiotic resistance as a conflict between individual decision makers and their short-term interest and the interest of society as a whole, in both present and future: The effort that doctors make to please each patient by prescribing a drug when it might not be properly indicated, poor monitoring of discharged patients to ensure that they do not transmit drug-resistant pathogens to other persons, excesses in the marketing of new antibiotics, and the broad overuse of antibiotics all contribute to the development and spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The book explores a range of policy options that would encourage patients, health care providers, and managed care organizations to serve as more responsible stewards of existing antibiotics as well as proposals that would give pharmaceutical firms greater incentives to develop new antibiotics and avoid overselling. If the problem continues unaddressed, antibiotic resistance has the potential to derail the health care system and return us to a world where people of all ages routinely die from simple infections. As a basis for future research and a spur to a critically important dialogue, Extending the Cure is a fundamental first step in addressing this public health crisis. The Extending the Cure project is funded in part by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation through its Pioneer Portfolio.

Antibiotics represent one of the most successful forms of therapy in medicine. But the efficiency of antibiotics is compromised by the growing number of antibiotic-resistant pathogens. Antibiotic resistance, which is implicated in elevated morbidity and mortality rates as well as in the increased treatment costs, is considered to be one of the major global public health threats (www.who.int/drugresistance/en/) and the magnitude of the problem recently prompted a number of international and national bodies to take actions to protect the public (http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/health_consumer/docs/road-map-amr_en.pdf: http://www.who.int/drugresistance/amr_global_action_plan/en/; http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/docs/carb_national_strategy.pdf). Understanding the mechanisms by which bacteria successfully defend themselves against the antibiotic assault represent the main theme of this eBook published as a Research Topic in Frontiers in Microbiology, section of Antimicrobials, Resistance, and Chemotherapy. The articles in the eBook update the reader on various aspects and mechanisms of antibiotic resistance. A better understanding of these mechanisms should facilitate the development of means to potentiate the efficacy and increase the lifespan of antibiotics while minimizing the emergence of antibiotic resistance among pathogens.