Is antibiotic resistance "Fake News"?

Just after the inauguration of Donald Trump, all mention of antibiotic resistance was removed from the White House website.
Published in Microbiology
Is antibiotic resistance "Fake News"?
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On the 18th of September 2014, Barak Obama issued an executive order to combat antibiotic resistant bacteria. In this White House document, he acknowledged that antibiotic resistance "represents a serious threat to public health and the economy". The report advocated domestic and international cooperation and recognised that controlling the spread of antibiotic resistance required "a strategic, coordinated, and sustained effort."

Today, just days after a CDC report on a pan-resistant K. pneumoniae isolate, there is no mention of antibiotic resistance on the White House website as pointed out by Maryn McKenna, a journalist specialising in public health.

If you believe that antibiotic resistance does represent a serious public health threat and that controlling it requires strategy, coordination and effort then this is worrying. We can be sure that the forces creating resistant bacteria are not going to ease up that any reduction in our efforts to control antibiotic resistance will directly affect patients.

Antibiotic resistance has never been more of a threat. As good as modern medicine becomes, it has the potential to be overshadowed by patients succumbing to once treatable infections. This is a step in the wrong direction and as researchers, we have more of a responsibility that ever to communicate the facts about antibiotic resistance to prevent a bad situation from spiralling out of control.


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Go to the profile of Domenico Palumberi
about 7 years ago
Very good point Ben. We should talk more even about numbers because right now the problem is perceived as secondary one, due to small amount of death people, ignoring the catastrophe that is starting .