June 2009

Dear Colleague,

Laurie Garrett, Director of the Council on Foreign Relations’ Global Health Program, and her colleague, Kammerle Schneider, Deputy Director, are the guest authors this month. In their column they discuss human antibiotic resistance caused by non-therapeutic use of antibiotics in animal agriculture and the status of the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act (PAMTA) of 2009. See also, Laurie’s recent interview about H1N1 influenza and her concerns about resistance.

As always, we welcome your thoughts at [email protected].

Regards,

Rachel Nugent
Deputy Director for Global Health
Center for Global Development

Non-therapeutic Use of Antibiotics in Animal Agriculture, Corresponding Resistance Rates, and What Can be Done About It

By Kammerle Schneider & Laurie Garrett, Council on Foreign Relations

The same commercial animal farms that provided the breeding grounds for the novel H1N1 A virus that caused the current “Swine Flu” pandemic are home to another dangerous threat to human health: antibiotic resistance.

In the United States, feed animals poultry, swine, cattle and sheep are routinely fed low doses of antibiotics through their water or food troughs to promote growth and expedite weight gain. A series of large scale studies conducted by the Department of Agriculture in 1999, 2001 and 2006 revealed that over 80 percent of swine farms, cattle feedlots and sheep farms administer antibiotics for non-therapeutic purposes (i.e., not used to treat diseases).

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IN THE NEWS

Bacteria (Besides TB)

• Drug-resistant strains of gonorrhea in England and Wales (BBC News)
• The global AMR challenge (Environmental Health Perspectives)
• Community-acquired MRSA becoming more widespread? (BBC News)
• Use of antibiotics in animals impact on resistance (Journal Gazette)

TB

• Experimental drug fives times more effective against MDR-TB (Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report)
• Health care workers at risk of MDR-TB in South Africa (Irin Plus News)
• Money for MDR-TB drugs in Kenya is running out (Daily Nation)
• Spread of resistant strains of TB in Uganda (The Independent)
• Signing of four drug discovery collaboration agreements targeting resistant strains of TB (TB Alliance)

Malaria

• A review of MDR-malaria (Merinews)
• Fake drugs and their contribution to a potential malaria disaster in Asia (Business Report)
• ATC resistance emerging in Cambodia (BBC News)

HIV

• Identifying individuals who are vulnerable to ART drug resistance (New York Times)
• Is there a higher risk of HIV drug resistance when treatment is initiated at lower CD4+ count levels? (Aidsmap)

OTHER

• Fears of drug-resistant strains of A(H1N1) (Adelaide Now) and (Bangkok Post)
• Precautions for A(H1N1) frontline health workers (PR Newswire)

Featured VIDEO

• View a brief discussion with Laurie Garrett, Council on Foreign Relations, on the very real threat of A(H1N1) resistance emergence

latest research

• Is HIV Infection a Risk Factor for Multi-Drug Resistant Tuberculosis? A Systematic Review (PloS Medicine, Suchindran et al.)
• Epidemiology of Anti-tuberculosis Drug Resistance 2002—07: An Updated Analysis of the "Global Project on Anti-Tuberculosis Drug Resistance Surveillance" (The Lancet, Wright et al) (abstract only)

PARTNER RESOURCES

• ReAct and EPN Launch the “Fight AMR - Save Medicines for our Children” Campaign During the 62nd World Health Assembly

RECENT/UPCOMING EVENTS

• 10th Commonwealth Pharmacists Association Conference, Accra, Ghana. August 5-9, 2009. DRWG is hosting a panel; please join us if you are there.
• International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) Conference, Istanbul, Turkey. September 3-8, 2009. DRWG will participate in a panel
• Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC), San Francisco, CA, USA. September 12-15, 2009. Submit an abstract by July 24th.
• International Course on Clinical Management of Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis, Manila, Philippines. September 21-25, 2009. Registration deadline June 30th.