Different Health Sectors Collaborate to Protect Against Antibiotic Resistance

In this clip, Debra Goff, PharmD, FCCP, infectious disease clinical pharmacist and Associate Professor at The Ohio State University, tells American Veterinarian about One Health, a movement dedicated to bringing together different fields who handle antibiotics to prevent the misuse of these bacteria killing drugs.

Antibiotic resistance is a major global health threat, with an estimated 700,000 deaths occurring from drug-resistant bacterial infections every year, according to a press release from the World Health Organization (WHO). Additionally, drug resistance in animals is a concern, as animals are often affected by the same microbes as humans, with 60% of human diseases traced back to animals. When bacteria in animals becomes drug resistant, humans have a greater risk of being infected with difficult-to-treat diseases, according to the WHO.

One Health and officials with WHO are teaming up this week to recognize the problem of antibiotic resistance. During the 4th annual World Antibiotic Awareness Week, health officials from around the globe will team up to help protect humans, animals, and the environment from antibiotic resistant infections.

One Health recognizes that no one group, including human health care providers, veterinarians, departments of agriculture, or food safety management, is responsible for resistance and that all sectors involved need to take collective action to protect against drug-resistance, according to the release.

Dr. Goff: We are in a world health care crisis. We’re running out of effective antibiotics, so we have to find different ways to engage people, and that’s why we dedicate 1 week around the world. So, engaging people, you know, I used to think if you could just prescribe antibiotics appropriately in a hospital, then you got it all done, but it’s far bigger than that. That’s why we’ve evolved, and I personally have, from just antibiotic stewardship in a hospital setting to a One Health antibiotic stewardship approach, and people go “well what’s one health?” One health is really the big picture of antibiotic stewardship.

The CDC tells us that 80% of antibiotics in the United States are actually prescribed to animals, not humans, and most people raise their eyebrows when you say that going, “what?” But if you think of it as a consumer, you probably go to fast food places like chipotle or Panera, and what are they advertising? Antibiotic free chicken. Where did that idea ever come from? Well, use of antibiotics in animals in the united states used to be given for growth promotion, just to fatten them up faster. What a horrible way to use an antibiotic. So, in 2017 that has been banned.

So, now by working in One Health, so I work at the Ohio State University One Health Antibiotic Stewardship Program, and, what that does is it brings experts from human medicine, that’s myself, veterinary medicine, food safety, agriculture, all under one umbrella to talk about responsible use of antibiotics.