In the U.S., someone dies every 15 minutes from an antibiotic-resistant superbug and experts project a global toll of 10 million annual deaths by 2050 without more action. Superbugs put at risk not only treatment of common bacterial infections, but also make dialysis, transplant surgeries, C-sections, joint replacements and many more medical procedures much more dangerous.
The overuse of antibiotics is the main factor driving this deadly slow-moving pandemic of resistant superbugs. Overuse in hospitals and doctors' offices adds to the problem, but many more antibiotics are used on farms. Stopping the spread of super-bugs requires stopping antibiotics overuse on farms.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) controls how drugs can be used in animals. The FDA currently allows many antibiotics to be fed to animals for their whole life even when there are no signs of disease. This type of use, known as disease prevention, is a big cause of the overuse of antibiotics on farms. The FDA recognizes the problem of antibiotic overuse and is seeking input on how to reduce it. However, the FDA's approach falls far short of what is needed. The FDA would allow the continued routine use of these life-saving drugs in animals that are not sick for disease prevention. Their plan lets drug companies decide how long a drug can be used in farm animals as long as it is not the whole life of an animal. Finally, the FDA's plan gives drug companies until 2030 to make these modest changes. This is totally unacceptable.
Please write to the FDA and tell them to make protecting people and animals from resistant superbugs their highest priority when addressing antibiotic use on farms. That means prohibiting the use of antibiotics in animals that are not sick, prohibiting farms from giving an antibiotic to animals for more than 21 days, and speeding up the timeline for action so that all these changes are done by 2025.
Antibiotic resistance is a slow-moving pandemic that kills tens of thousands of people each year. I call on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to immediately address the overuse of antibiotics on farms that is contributing to this pandemic.
The FDA's concept paper "Potential Approach for Defining Durations of Use for Medically Important Antimicrobial Drugs Intended for Use In or On Feed " acknowledges the problem, but falls fall short of what is needed to protect human and animal health from antibiotic-resistant superbug infections.
The FDA needs to put protecting the public at the forefront of its efforts to address antibiotic use on farms. The FDA should prohibit the use of medically important antibiotics in animals that are not sick or injured. FDA should require drug makers to limit the use of antibiotics to under 21 days, consistent with FDA recommendations for new drug approvals. Finally, the FDA must speed up its timeline and make sure these changes are in place by 2025.
The FDA needs to act now and act quickly to make sure that no more people die unnecessarily from antibiotic-resistant superbug infections.
