US President Barack Obama has issued an Executive Order that aims to combat the rise of antibiotic resistant bacteria that represent a serious threat to public health and the economy.
It says the US Federal Government will work domestically and internationally to “detect, prevent, and control illness and death related to antibiotic-resistant infections by implementing measures that reduce the emergence and spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and help ensure the continued availability of effective therapeutics for the treatment of bacterial infections”.
Measures to tackle antimicrobial resistance include eliminating “the use of medically important classes of antibiotics for growth promotion purposes in food-producing animals”.
The Executive Order can be found here.
A report to the President on combating antibiotic resistance by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology can be found here.