From: olivercrangle2@gmail.com   
      
   23,000 Die Yearly of Antibiotic Resistant Infections   
   By Centers for Disease Control and Prevention  //  September 18, 2013   
      
           
   MORE JUDICIOUS USE OF ANTIBIOTICS IMPERATIVE   
      
   ABOVE VIDEO: CDC Director, Dr. Tom Frieden, highlights the new CDC report that   
   covers one of the most serious health threats we face today – antibiotic   
   resistance. The fact that our antibiotics don’t work as well as they used to,   
   or at all, against a    
   growing number of infections is alarming. We risk a future where simple   
   infections can turn deadly. Cutting this threat requires urgent and immediate   
   collaboration among public health, clinical medicine, agriculture, industry,   
   and policy makers.   
      
   EDITOR’S NOTE:  Antibiotics, powerful tools for fighting illness and disease,   
   can be lifesavers, but misuse and overuse has increased the number of   
   drug-resistant germs and created bacteria that are outliving the drugs used to   
   treat them.    
      
   Antibiotic resistance is a rapidly progressing, extremely dangerous problem   
   that affects everyone.  In a recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention   
   (CDC) report, chronicled below in a CDC release, the agency detailed for the   
   first time the toll    
   that antibiotic-resistant microbes are taking on humans. Infections resulting   
   from antibiotic resistance, such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus   
   (MRSA), have been on the media forefront for well over a decade, but in this   
   report the CDC takes a    
   truly comprehensive look at over two dozen lesser known bacterial infections,   
   ranking the threat of each as “urgent,” “serious” or “concerning.”    
      
   On the CDC’s “urgent” list are carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE),   
   Neisseria gonorrhoeae, and Clostridium difficile.    
      
      
   In a recently released report on the impact of antibiotic resistance, the CDC   
   takes a truly comprehensive look at over two dozen bacterial infections,   
   ranking the threat of each as “urgent,” “serious” or “concerning.”   
      
   Drug-resistant gonorrhea is the second most commonly reported notifiable   
   infection in the U.S., responsible for some 800,000 cases a year, 246,000 of   
   which are drug-resistant.  There is grave concern that the easily sexually   
   transmitted infection might    
   become resistant to cephalosporins, especially ceftriaxone (Rocephin), the   
   mainstay of first-line treatment. The CDC projects that progressive   
   cephalosporin resistance would, over the next 10 years, result in 75,000   
   additional cases of pelvic    
   inflammatory disease, 15,000 cases of epididymitis, and 222 additional HIV   
   infections, as well as extra direct medical costs of $235 million.   
      
   In itself, the third organism on the “urgent” list, C. difficile, is not   
   resistant to most antimicrobials used to treat it, but is definitely regarded   
   as an unintended consequence of overuse of antibiotics. Although not included   
   in the estimated 23,000    
   deaths associated with antibiotic resistance, the severe diarrhea and   
   metabolic disturbance associated with C. difficile leads to approximately   
   14,000 deaths in U.S. hospitals annually.    
      
   Michael Jacobs, MD, of University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland   
   told MedPage Today that red flags have been going up for years about   
   antibiotic resistance. “The CDC report is a landmark because it’s the first   
   really comprehensive look at the    
   issue nationwide.” He points out that the problem has been growing for   
   decades, and the new report is unlikely to make an immediate and sharp change.   
   “Nothing is going to make a dramatic difference,” he said. “It’s going to be a   
   long, slow struggle.   
      
      
   Antibiotic stewardship requires an enlightened, integrated and disciplined   
   effort on the part of physicians, patients, pharmacists and healthcare policy   
   makers.   
      
   So, the CDC’s core action #3: “…The commitment to always use antibiotics   
   appropriately and safely – only when they are needed to treat disease – and to   
   choose the right antibiotics and to administer them in the right way in every   
   case,” is the most    
   important action needed to greatly slow the development and spread of   
   antibiotic-resistant infections. Antibiotic stewardship, as it’s called,   
   requires an enlightened, integrated and disciplined effort on the part of   
   physicians, patients, pharmacists and    
   healthcare policy makers.   
      
   CDC Details Today’s Drug-Resistant Health Threats   
      
   ATLANTA, GEORGIA — Every year, more than two million people in the United   
   States get infections that are resistant to antibiotics and at least 23,000   
   people die as a result, according to a new report issued by the Centers for   
   Disease Control and    
   Prevention.   
      
   The report, Antibiotic Resistance Threats in the United States, 2013, presents   
   the first snapshot of the burden and threats posed by antibiotic-resistant   
   germs having the most impact on human health.  The threats are ranked in   
   categories: urgent, serious,   
    and concerning.   
      
   Threats were assessed according to seven factors associated with resistant   
   infections: health impact, economic impact, how common the infection is, a   
   10-year projection of how common it could become, how easily it spreads,   
   availability of effective    
   antibiotics, and barriers to prevention.   
      
   Infections classified as urgent threats include carbapenem-resistant   
   Enterobacteriaceae (CRE), drug-resistant gonorrhea, and Clostridium difficile,   
   a serious diarrheal infection usually associated with antibiotic use.  C.   
   difficile causes about 250,000    
   hospitalizations and at least 14,000 deaths every year in the United States.   
      
      
   “Antibiotic resistance is rising for many different pathogens that are threats   
   to health,” said CDC Director Tom Frieden, M.D., M.P.H. (above). “If we don’t   
   act now, our medicine cabinet will be empty and we won’t have the antibiotics   
   we need to save    
   lives.”   
      
   “Antibiotic resistance is rising for many different pathogens that are threats   
   to health,” said CDC Director Tom Frieden, M.D., M.P.H. “If we don’t act now,   
   our medicine cabinet will be empty and we won’t have the antibiotics we need   
   to save lives.”   
      
   In addition to the toll on human life, antibiotic-resistant infections add   
   considerable and avoidable costs to the already overburdened U.S. health care   
   system. Studies have estimated that, in the United States, antibiotic   
   resistance adds $20 billion in    
   excess direct health care costs, with additional costs to society for lost   
   productivity as high as $35 billion a year.   
      
   The use of antibiotics is the single most important factor leading to   
   antibiotic resistance. Up to 50 percent of all the antibiotics prescribed for   
   people are not needed or are not prescribed appropriately.   
      
      
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