Senate Bill 43—Superbug Tracking
This legislation will establish a first-in-the-nation system to monitor and track antibiotic-resistant infections and deaths related to these infections caused by “superbugs.”
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that antibiotic resistance kills 23,000 Americans each year and sickens some 2 million people. In California, health authorities estimate that superbugs are to blame for 3,000 deaths and 260,000 illnesses annually.
Despite the catastrophic nature of the public health threat posed by superbugs, California – and the federal government – do not track antibiotic resistant infections or deaths associated with the infections.
“We cannot hope to effectively combat superbug infections without such critical information,” said Senator Hill. “What we don’t know can kill us.”
This bill will ensure that California has a system in place to closely monitor the development of superbug infections and track deaths related to those infections.
Senator Hill is a policy leader on efforts to curb the rise of superbugs, having authored the first legislation in the U.S. to control use of antibiotics in livestock, SB 27 (2015), and first-in-the-nation legislation to require hospitals, SB 1311 (2014), and nursing homes, SB 361 (2015), to have programs to promote better managed and more accurate prescribing of antibiotics.