One Health Movement News / One Health Topics 'in' the News

Pets might be a source of drug-resistant superbugs, Chinese researchers reported Tuesday. 

They found a pet shop worker infected with a much-feared antibiotic resistant strain of E. coli may have been infected by dogs at his store that carried the same strain.

Doctors have responded well to the call to reduce unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions. But what about farming? The Dutch have shown that antibiotic use can be slashed in agriculture too. So why isn’t everybody doing it? Tony Sheldon reports

“Dutch healthcare uses the fewest antibiotics in the world,” is the bold and justifiable claim of the Dutch Health Council, the government’s independent scientific advisers. The country has had low use for decades.1 Yet in veterinary medicine the Netherlands, the world’s second largest exporter of agri-food products (after the United States), was, until a few years ago, among the highest users. This mismatch sparked action that saw the country cut antibiotic use in farm animals by nearly 60% from 2007 to 2015.

"At least 30 percent of antibiotics prescribed in the United States are unnecessary, according to new data published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in collaboration with Pew Charitable Trusts and other public health and medical experts.

The study analyzed antibiotic use in doctors’ offices and emergency departments throughout the United States. CDC researchers found that most of these unnecessary antibiotics are prescribed for respiratory conditions caused by viruses – including common colds, viral sore throats, bronchitis, and sinus and ear infections – which do not respond to antibiotics. These 47 million excess prescriptions each year put patients at needless risk for allergic reactions or the sometimes deadly diarrhea, Clostridium difficile."

Excerpt: "The President has proclaimed Nov. 16-22 “Get Smart About Antibiotics Week.”    Get Smart Week builds on the momentum generated at the White House Forum on Antibiotic Stewardship, where more than 150 organizations pledged to improve antibiotic use and slow the spread of antibiotic resistance.

Antibiotic resistance – the rise of deadly germs no longer stopped by the drugs that once controlled them – threatens to take us back to the days when minor infections commonly killed.

CDC estimates that each year two million Americans get an infection with an antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Every year 23,000 of those patients die. CDC has made combating antibiotic resistance a top priority and is partnering with public institutions and private industry to overcome this challenge. It is critical to use these life-saving drugs when truly necessary, such as when treating patients with sepsis, while also using the right drug at the right dose and duration to  protect the effectiveness of antibiotics."