Brown is Reintroducing the Strategies to Address Antibiotic Resistance (STAAR) Act to Help Address Growing Health Crisis. During News Conference Call, Brown Joined an Expert in Infectious Disease and Antibiotic Resistance to Discuss Threat Posed by Antibiotic Resistance.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) outlined his plan to protect Ohioans from deadly “super bugs” by combatting antibiotic resistance. Antibiotic resistance and the growing shortage of effective antibiotic drugs impacts more than two million Americans each year – with an estimated 23,000 dying as a result – according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). To address this increasing public health crisis, Brown is reintroducing the Strategies to Address Antibiotic Resistance(STAAR) Act, legislation that would strengthen the federal response by increasing antibiotic resistance data collection and monitoring, prevention and control, and research efforts.
“Antibiotics have been one of the greatest public health achievements of all time but antibiotic-resistant “super bugs” are an increasingly dangerous threat to Ohioans,” Brown said. “It’s critical that we do everything possible to preserve antibiotics as one of our most effective tools to fight disease and that’s why I’m reintroducing the STAAR Act to strengthen the federal response to antibiotic resistant bacteria. We have to be proactive if we want to prevent a public health crisis, and stop the spread of these superbugs before they erase many of the health gains we’ve made over the past century.”
During a news conference call, Brown joined Dr. Robert Bonomo – director of Medical Services at the Louis Stokes Veterans Affairs Medical Center, a professor at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine, and an expert in infectious disease and antibiotic resistance – to discuss why the STAAR Act is needed to address the threat antibiotic resistance poses.
“Drug-resistant infections are already a hidden epidemic and unless we take vigorous and immediate steps to curtail them, the American people will face a public health crisis of tragic proportions,” Dr. Bonomo said. “If we are to avoid this grim prospect, we must build off of existing successful programs by continuing to reinforce surveillance and reporting, and support basic research to address this global threat.”
Drug-resistant infections – like Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) – are impacting more than just hospitals and are also infecting healthy adults and children. If left unaddressed, antibiotic resistance could result in a generation of antibiotics that are virtually ineffective, seriously jeopardizing patient safety and public health. It is estimated that the total economic cost of antibiotic resistance to the U.S. economy is more than $20 billion a year in excess health care costs, with additional costs to society for lost productivity as high as $35 billion a year.
Brown’s bill would provide a multi-pronged strategy to help limit the growing impact of antibiotic resistance, positively impacting the nation’s overall health and national security, and lowering the costs associated with antimicrobial-resistant. Specifically, the bill would:
- Reauthorize the Interagency Antimicrobial Resistance Task Force and codify sections of the National Action Plan for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria (CARB), to promote prevention and track antibiotic use and resistance.
- Enact key CDC recommendations to place greater emphasis on federal antimicrobial resistance surveillance, prevention and control, and research efforts.
- Authorize the use of grants to healthcare facilities to study the development and implementation of antimicrobial stewardship programs aimed at expanding efforts to encourage appropriate use of antibiotics.
- Allow the CDC to partner with state health departments to implement prevention collaboratives, and to expand public health partnerships through the CDC’s established Prevention Epi-Centers work.
- Require annual reports to Congress on implementation.