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Transatlantic task force created to combat antimicrobial resistance
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President Obama and Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, as a representative of the European Union, have announced the creation of a transatlantic task force to address the growing problem of antibiotic resistance.
The announcement came in the wake of a summit on the public health implications of antimicrobial resistance. Leaders at the summit discussed potential solutions to the increasingly-urgent problem. An international agreement in which the United States and European Union countries agreed to cooperate to combat the global health crisis was signed.
The task force will identify key issues related to antibiotic use. Monitoring appropriate use of the drugs in medical and veterinary communities, prevention of health care- and community-associated drug-resistant infections and strategies for improving the antibiotic drug pipeline are methods expected to be employed by the task force.
The task force has been asked to produce concrete action plans that build on international cooperation and provide regular reports on the progress of the initiative.
The initiative has been lauded by health officials from both sides of the Atlantic, including members of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases and the Pew Health Group.
WHO has designated antimicrobial resistance as one of the three greatest threats to human health.
WHO is appropriately concerned with human infections due to antimicrobial-resistant bacteria,fungi, parasites, and viruses. The newly-formed U.S. and European task force will hopefully provide more ideas for control of these infections. The report from a 2008 colloquium of the American Academy of Microbiology entitled Antibiotic Resistance: An Ecological Perspective on an Old Problem was published in 2009. It is the best unbiased summary on this issue,and should be useful to the task force. Antimicrobial-resistant organisms will never be eliminated, but infections caused by them might be decreased with good public health and political support by all countries. I hope this happens, but it would be a first.
- George Pankey, MD
Infectious Disease News Editorial Board member