WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) issued the following statement in advance of today’s White House Antibiotic Stewardship Forum. APIC President Mary Lou Manning, PhD, CRNP, CIC, FAAN, FNAP, will represent the organization at the forum.
APIC is proud to join more than 150 major food companies, retailers, and human and animal health stakeholders at the White House Forum on Antibiotic Stewardship to discuss strategies to slow the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, detect resistant strains, preserve the efficacy of our existing antibiotics, and prevent the spread of resistant infections. We support the President’s efforts to promote antibiotic stewardship.
APIC believes that the U.S. must do more to protect the 2 million Americans who develop infections from antibiotic-resistant bacteria each year and the 23,000 who will die as a result. More than half of all hospitalized patients will get an antibiotic at some point during their hospital stay, but studies have shown that 30 to 50 percent of antibiotics prescribed in hospitals are unnecessary or incorrect, contributing to the problem of antibiotic resistance.
In conjunction with today’s White House event and in support of APIC’s patient safety mission, APIC shared its new advocacy agenda to promote antibiotic stewardship.
As part of the new advocacy agenda, APIC outlined the role of its members, infection preventionists, and how they benefit stewardship programs. APIC’s 15,000 members work with health professionals from varied backgrounds and care settings to teach and promote infection prevention, patient safety, and healthcare quality improvement. APIC members work with their colleagues to identify and report trends and outbreaks from antibiotic-resistant infections; support efforts to improve antibiotic prescribing and stewardship; and implement interventions to guide the delivery of evidence-based practices to prevent infections.
APIC has promoted a number of efforts to support antibiotic stewardship including clinician education and training, consumer education, and public policy initiatives. APIC organized a coalition of stakeholders to increase resources for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Healthcare Safety Network and urged its members to send a letter to Congress supporting funding for healthcare-associated infection and antibiotic resistance prevention programs, which would be able to provide real-time data on antibiotic use. APIC also educates consumers through the “Infection Prevention and You” campaign initiative, which highlights resources and information on antibiotic resistance.
Successful efforts to combat antibiotic resistant bacteria must recognize the collective responsibility to protect the effectiveness of all antibiotics – those we have today, and those yet to be developed; recognize the potential for these life-saving drugs to be overused in both the human and agricultural sectors; and recognize that there are challenges on both the demand side and the supply side of the equation.
Antibiotic resistance is an urgent health concern that demands the full attention of healthcare professionals, policy makers, and the public. It is vitally important that we act now to preserve antibiotics for the patients of today and for future generations.
ABOUT APIC
APIC’s mission is to create a safer world through prevention of infection. The association’s more than 15,000 members direct infection prevention programs that save lives and improve the bottom line for hospitals and other healthcare facilities. APIC advances its mission through patient safety, implementation science, competencies and certification, advocacy, and data standardization. Visit APIC online at www.apic.org. Follow APIC on Twitter: http://twitter.com/apic and Facebook: www.facebook.com/APICInfectionPreventionandYou. For information on what patients and families can do, visit APIC’s Infection Prevention and You website at www.apic.org/infectionpreventionandyou.