Obama wants $1.2 billion to battle bacteria

WASHINGTON — President Obama says he has a plan to combat the growing problem of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections responsible for an estimated 23,000 deaths and two million illnesses in the United States every year.

His administration is proposing a series of measures to crack down on over-prescribing, develop new alternative medicines and track infection outbreaks in real time.

"What's remarkable is the federal government never had a plan like this before. It's a growing and growing problem," said Eric Lander, co-chairman of the President's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology. "Now there's something concrete to point to, and you're going to have to hold our feet to the fire to make sure this all gets done."

The efforts are not without a cost: Obama's proposed 2016 budget asks Congress to double funding for combating and preventing antibiotic resistance to more than $1.2 billion.

"This plan spells out exactly where the money will go, so I'm urging Congress to pass a budget that will help save lives," Obama said at a meeting with his scientific advisers. "We can't do this without Congress. But in order for us to get it done, we're also going to have to educate the public."

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"We take antibiotics for granted for a lot of illnesses that can be deadly and debilitating," Obama said.

Among the strategies being proposed:

• Rein in the misuse of antibiotics: The plan calls for improving prescribing practices among doctors and veterinarians. It will also prohibit the use of certain medically important antibiotics in livestock production by the end of 2016..

"It will be illegal to use those antibiotics. Illegal — it's not a suggestion," said Lander, a biology professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

• Increase monitoring: Hospitals receiving Medicare funding will be required to submit data on antibiotic use and resistance, and the government will establish regional laboratories to test bacteria specimens. "Ideally, we'd be able to see in real-time where the cases of drug resistance are being reported, so we can take swift action," Obama told the health-advice web site Web MD. "The same goes for rates of antibiotic use."

• Develop new antibiotics. The administration is focusing on new antibiotics to replace those that are no longer effective, but also other drugs that can encourage growth in animals without the use of antibiotics. "Vaccines is one of the areas that doesn't get much attention. And it is one very logical alternative to antibiotics," said Steven Kappes of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

• Engage globally: The plan calls for sharing data and practices with other developed and developing countries, and for import regulations to insure the safety of antibiotics used in poorer countries.

The plan quickly drew criticism that it isn't going far enough, particularly in continuing to allow antibiotic use in livestock for "disease prevention."

"Once again, the administration has fallen woefully short of taking meaningful action to curb the overuse of antibiotics in healthy food animals," said Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., who has a degree in microbiology. She's sponsoring a bill that would further restrict the use of antibiotics in animals for food.

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