Antibiotic Tzar?

The President's Report on Antibiotic Resistance: What Does It Mean to Clinicians?

John G. Bartlett, MD

"The proposal is for federal spending of $450 million, a priority and budget presumably justified by the estimated cost of antibiotic resistance in human lives (23,000 deaths/year in the United States) and dollars ($55-$70 billion in healthcare costs).

I believe that the plan is very government-centric, with the appointment of a White House Director for National Antibiotic Resistance and major tasks assigned to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of Defense, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Department of Veterans Affairs, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)."