On average, someone in the United States gets an antibiotic resistant infection every 11 seconds, and every 15 minutes someone dies, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Globally, AMR now kills more people than HIV/AIDS or malaria.
AMR is a threat to all of us. Without antimicrobial medicines, patients lose not just treatments for serious infections, but they also face significantly increased risks from many medical services that rely upon effective prevention and treatment of infections. This includes everything from organ transplants to cancer treatments to joint replacement to the care of preterm and immunocompromised patients and more.
Antibiotics have long underpinned modern medicine, helping stave off infections and mitigate risk for those undergoing surgeries and other medical procedures.
But the antibiotics we have relied on for decades are beginning to fail us. Common infections are increasingly difficult to treat and the numbers of new drugs under development are declining due to a combination of negative market signals and manufacturer bankruptcies.
There is a solution working its way through Congress. The PASTEUR Act will address the challenges in the antimicrobial marketplace and encourage the development of much-needed medicines.
Please join us in calling on your representative to support the PASTEUR Act and for Congress to move forward on addressing this urgent public health crisis now.