Communication is Key: Using the One Health Initiative on the Local Level to Tackle Antibiotic Resistance

Lauri A. Hicks, DO, captain, US Public Health Service, director, Office of Antibiotic Stewardship, medical director, Get Smart: Know When Antibiotics Work, Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, discusses why there should be local coalitions in each state that include both animal and human healthcare communities dedicated to fighting antibiotic resistance.

Interview Transcript (slightly modified for readability)

“We know that we won’t solve this problem [of antibiotic resistance] unilaterally. We know that there’s a lot of antibiotic use for humans; [and] there’s a lot of antibiotic use for animals as well. We want to make sure that both veterinarians [and] the human healthcare community are in communication about how to tackle this problem.

The way I think about it is that, at the very local level, we want to make sure that each state health department or each state local organization that is helping to spearhead antibiotic stewardship efforts within their local region is bringing together all of these relevant partners. If we leave out the animal agricultural sector, we miss a very important piece. If we leave out human healthcare, we miss a critical piece. So, really, the idea here is that whenever there is a local coalition being formed to improve how antibiotics are being used, we really should be thinking about this across the spectrum of human and animal healthcare, and then, get back to thinking about this as a ‘One Health’ issue.”