[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 46 (Tuesday, March 17, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E689]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 INTRODUCTION OF THE PRESERVATION OF ANTIBIOTICS FOR MEDICAL TREATMENT 
                                  ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                     HON. LOUISE McINTOSH SLAUGHTER

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, March 17, 2009

  Ms. SLAUGHTER. Madam Speaker, I rise today to reintroduce legislation 
that is critically important in preventing our current stock of 
antibiotics from becoming obsolete. As a mother, grandmother, and 
microbiologist, I cannot stress the urgency of this problem enough.
  Two million Americans acquire bacterial infections during their 
hospital stay every year, and 70 percent of their infections will be 
resistant to the drugs commonly used to treat them. As a result, every 
day thirty-eight patients in our hospitals will die of those 
infections.
  Sadly, children and infants are particularly susceptible to 
infections caused by antibiotic resistant bacteria. For example, 
Salmonella causes 1.4 million illnesses every year. Over one-third of 
all diagnoses occur in children under the age of 10. Infants under the 
age of one are 10 times more likely than the general population to 
acquire a Salmonella infection. In 1995, 19 percent of Salmonella 
strains were found to be multi-drug resistant. That means that our 
children are left to undergo multiple treatments for otherwise simple 
infections because we have allowed traditional treatments to become 
ineffective.
  And the cost to our already strained health care system is 
astronomical. In fact, resistant bacterial infections increase health 
care costs by $4 billion to $5 billion each year.
  Currently, seven classes of antibiotics certified by the Food and 
Drug Administration (FDA) as ``highly'' or ``critically'' important in 
human medicine are used in agriculture as animal feed additives. Among 
them are penicillin, tetracyclines, macrolides, lincosamides, 
streptogramins, aminoglycosides, and sulfonamides. These classes of 
antibiotics are among the most critically important in our arsenal of 
defense against potentially fatal human diseases.
  Penicillins, for example, are used to treat infections ranging from 
strep throat to meningitis. Macrolides and Sulfonamides are used to 
prevent secondary infections in patients with AIDS and to treat 
pneumonia in HIV-infected patients. Tetracyclines are used to treat 
people potentially exposed to anthrax.
  Despite their importance in human medicine, these drugs are added to 
animal feed as growth promotants and for routine disease prevention. 
Approximately 70 percent of antibiotics and related drugs produced in 
the U.S. are given to cattle, pigs, and chicken to promote growth and 
to compensate for crowded, unsanitary, stressful conditions. The 
nontherapeutic use of antibiotics in poultry skyrocketed from 2 million 
pounds in 1985 to 10.5 million pounds in the late 1990s.
  This kind of habitual, nontherapuetic use of antibiotics has been 
conclusively linked to a growing number of incidents of antimicrobial-
resistant infections in humans, and may be contaminating ground water 
with resistant bacteria in rural areas. In fact, a National Academy of 
Sciences report states that, ``a decrease in antimicrobial use in human 
medicine alone will have little effect on the current situation. 
Substantial efforts must be made to decrease inappropriate overuse in 
animals and agriculture as well.''
  Resistant bacteria can be transferred from animals to humans in 
several ways. Antibiotic resistant bacteria can be found in the meat 
and poultry that we purchase in the grocery store. In fact, a New 
England Journal of Medicine study conducted in Washington, DC found 
that 20 percent of the meat sampled was contaminated with Salmonella 
and 84 percent of those bacteria were resistant to antibiotics used in 
human medicine and animal agriculture. Bacteria can also be transferred 
from animals to humans via workers in the livestock industry who handle 
animals, feed, and manure. Farmers may then transfer the bacteria on to 
their family. A third method is via the environment. Nearly 2 trillion 
pounds of manure generated in the U.S. annually contaminate our 
groundwater, surface water, and soil. Because this manure contains 
resistant bacteria, the resistant bacteria can then be passed on to 
humans that come in contact with the water sources or soil.
  And the problem has been well documented.
  A 2002 analysis of more than 500 scientific articles and published in 
the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases found that ``many lines of 
evidence link antimicrobial resistant human infections to foodborne 
pathogens of animal origin.''
  The Institute of Medicine's 2003 report on Microbial Threats to 
Health concluded ``Clearly, a decrease in the inappropriate use of 
antimicrobials in human medicine alone is not enough. Substantial 
efforts must be made to decrease inappropriate overuse in animals and 
agriculture as well.''
  As the impact of MRSA continues to unfold, there is little doubt that 
antibiotic resistant diseases are a growing public health menace 
demanding a high priority response. Despite increased attention to the 
issue, the response has been inadequate. Part of the problem has been 
the FDA's failure to adequately address the effect of the misuse of 
animal antibiotics on the efficacy of human drugs.
  Although the FDA could withdraw its approval for these antibiotics, 
its record of reviewing currently approved drugs under existing 
procedures indicates that it would take nearly a century to get these 
medically important antibiotics out of the feed given to food producing 
animals. In October 2000, for example, the FDA began consideration of a 
proposal to withdraw its approval for the therapeutic use of 
fluoroquinolones in poultry. The review, and eventual withdraw of 
approval, took five years to complete. Under its regulations, the FDA 
must review each class of antibiotics separately.
  The legislation I am reintroducing today, the Preservation of 
Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act, would phase out the use of the 
seven classes of medically significant antibiotics that are currently 
approved for nontherapeutic use in animal agriculture. Make no mistake, 
this bill would in no way infringe upon the use of these drugs to treat 
a sick animal. It simply proscribes their nontherapuetic use.
  Madam Speaker, when we go to the grocery store to pick up dinner, we 
should be able to buy our food without worrying that eating it will 
expose our family to potentially deadly bacteria that will no longer 
respond to our medial treatments. Unless we act now, we will 
unwittingly be permitting animals to serve as incubators for resistant 
bacteria.
  It is time for Congress to stand with scientists, the World Health 
Organization, the American Medical Association, and the National 
Academy of Sciences and do something to address the spread of resistant 
bacteria. We cannot afford for our medicines to become obsolete.
  I urge my colleagues to support the Preservation of Antibiotics for 
Medical Treatment Act to protect the integrity of our antibiotics and 
the health of American families.

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