WASHINGTON, D.C. – Utah Rep. Jim Matheson has reintroduced a bill to help address the growing number of patients who become resistant to antibiotics. The Strategies to Address Antimicrobial Resistance Act was filed Thursday in the U.S. House of Representatives.
“My bill takes a common-sense approach to better understand and monitor the cause and spread of antiviral resistant infections. It will improve antibiotic development and ultimately help people who need and rely on antibiotics,” Matheson said. “Antimicrobial resistance is often caused by the overuse of antibiotics and my bill addresses this problem by calling for data collection on antibiotic use as well as research to combat so-called ‘superbugs.’”
The STAAR Act would provide authority for the federal government to combat antimicrobial resistance by:
- Reauthorizing the Antimicrobial Resistance Task Force, establishing an Advisory Board of outside experts and an Office of Antimicrobial Resistance reporting to the Secretary of Health and Human Services whose director will oversee government efforts to combat antimicrobial resistance.
- Collecting available data to allow the government to better assess the antimicrobial resistance problem including how antibiotic use triggers the development of resistance.
- Establishing demonstration projects to encourage more appropriate use of existing antibiotics.
Submitted by: The Office of Rep. Jim Matheson
Email: [email protected]
Oh yeah, we can all breath easier now that the government is going to get involved. Right.
Get the … government out of my medical care, out of my doctor’s office, and out of my hospital!
Ed. ellipsis
So, Evil Twin, you’re all set to handle drug resistant TB on your own, then?
Don’t be stupid. Of course I’m not. But this is not a problem that the government is going to solve. At least not the way they are going about it. It is a MEDICAL problem. Is that so hard to understand?
Unfortunately, this does nothing to stop the biggest abuse of antibiotics and, consequently, the largest source of drug resistant bacteria, which is the routine use of antibiotics in livestock to get them to harvest weight faster.
I don’t see Congress taking on BigAg to decrease drug resistance