The One Health Initiative: A Collective Duty to Use Antibiotics Appropriately

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, explains how appropriate antibiotic use is a collective duty.

Interview Transcript (slightly modified for readability)

“USDA and FDA are very engaged here, but interestingly we’ve been working with, there’s a group [called] AVMA, the American Veterinary Medical Association, and CDC has been providing some support to that organization, because they’re very interested in developing curricula for veterinary students about the importance of appropriate antibiotic use [and] educating them about the antibiotic resistance problem. I think that you’ll see more and more organizations that are engaging around this issue and our role is really to make sure that we’re providing the necessary subject matter input to our partners.

Rather than think about this as somebody’s fault, I think we should be thinking about our collective duty as an individual, as physicians, as veterinarians, to use antibiotics appropriately. It’s really a matter of every single person, whether you’re a patient, whether you’re a physician, whether you’re a parent, [and how we] can be working to improve how antibiotics are being used.”