"Dr. Cecilia Di Pentima worries about the dwindling power of antibiotics because she knows the dangers posed by drug-resistant bacteria.
She ensures that a limited arsenal of drugs is switched about so these bacteria have fewer opportunities to creep into Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, where she runs the antimicrobial stewardship program. She’s frustrated that farmers are using more antibiotics to grow livestock than doctors are prescribing to get people well.
"We are at a crossroads where we really need to start using antibiotics more wisely," Di Pentima said.
Today, she is in Washington, D.C., for "Supermoms against Superbugs" to push for laws to curtail the use of antibiotics in livestock farming — one of many fronts in the battle to preserve the effectiveness of the medicines. Family physicians in the South, including Tennessee, have also been identified as inadvertent purveyors of drug-resistant bacteria by prescribing too many antibiotics."
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"On the other side of the issue is The Pew Charitable Trusts, the organizer of "Supermoms against Superbugs." A powerful and respected foundation that has hundreds of millions of dollars in assets, Pew has made food purity one of its priorities.
Nashville chef avoids certain farms
So has Jeremy Barlow, but on a much smaller scale. The Nashville chef and owner of Sloco restaurant does not buy or serve meats from farms that use antibiotics in animal husbandry. He is also in Washington this week.
"We are basically raising animals in an environment right now where we have to give them antibiotics on a steady dose in order to keep them from getting sick, as opposed to raising them with antibiotics much like with humans," Barlow said. "We don’t put our kids into school and pack them all in their school classroom and feed them antibiotics because the environment is unhealthy. That would be crazy."
Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) today introduced the Preventing Antibiotic Resistance Act, a bipartisan bill that would eliminate certain antibiotic-related practices that contribute to the rise of drug-resistant bacteria and endanger human health. The legislation is co-sponsored by Senators Susan Collins (R-ME), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Jack Reed (D-RI), Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA).
More infoThis bibliography lists the latest published scientific and economic literature concerning the contribution of routine antibiotic use in food animals to the growing public health crisis of human antibiotic resistance. Research on how antibiotic use in food animal production contributes to the growing health crisis of antibiotic resistance dates back more than 30 years.
More infoPew Charitable Trusts today applauded Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), and Susan Collins (R-ME), for introducing the Antimicrobial Data Collection Act, which would require the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, to report more information on the annual sales of antibiotics used among industrial farm animals. The bipartisan bill would also give the agency a deadline to finalize policies proposed last year to eliminate the use of antibiotics for growth promotion purposes in meat production.
More info"As a nation, we need to exercise greater care with our use of antibiotics, in both humans and animals, so that these medications remain effective in treating serious bacterial infections."
More infoSuperChefs Against Superbugs, an initiative of the Pew Campaign on Human Health and Industrial Farming, is a movement of chefs nationwide who have expressed their support of ending the misuse and overuse of antibiotics in food animal production. As a result, the SuperChefs are urging the Food and Drug Administration to strengthen its antibiotic policies.
More infoSuperChefs Against Superbugs, an initiative of the Pew Campaign on Human Health and Industrial Farming, is a movement of chefs who want to stop the overuse of antibiotics in food animal production. On April 23, the following seven chefs visited Capitol Hill to explain why they serve meat and poultry raised without antibiotics.
More infoIt used to be easy to treat healthy children with common bacterial infections; a regimen of antibiotic pills could usually wipe out the disease. Today, patients might need to go home on intravenous antibiotics because oral therapies will no longer work. Antibiotic resistance is to blame.
More infoA past bout of salmonella led Maine resident Danielle Wadsworth to travel to Washington, D.C. this week to argue for stronger regulations to curtail the use of antibiotics in livestock farming. She took part Wednesday in "Supermoms Against Superbugs," an initiative of the Pew Campaign on Human Health and Industrial Farming.
More infoEach year, tens of thousands of Americans die and hundreds of thousands are hospitalized because of bacterial infections resistant to antibiotics. Antibiotic overuse on industrial farms is a big part of the problem. The largest U.S. meat and poultry producers feed antibiotics to healthy animals over much of their lives to make them grow faster and to compensate for the overcrowded and unsanitary conditions in which they are bred and slaughtered.
More infoOn behalf of the undersigned organizations representing medical, public health, scientific, agricultural, environmental, animal protection, and other organizations, we urge you to include H.R. 820, the Delivering Antimicrobial Transparency in Animals (DATA) Act, as part of the final Animal Drug User Fee Act (ADUFA). This legislation provides a reasonable, common-sense approach to better understanding antibiotic use in agriculture.
More infoWe have an amazing roster of more than fifty moms, dads, and other caregivers ready to take Washington by storm. Hailing from 25 states, each supermom and superdad has a unique story to tell about why we need to stop overusing antibiotics on industrial farms, including moms who almost lost children to antibiotic-resistant infections and pediatricians who fight superbugs every day.
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