The Healthcare Leadership Council (HLC) recently held a Capitol Hill briefing to discuss the serious dangers that stem from an ongoing, worldwide crisis of antibiotic resistance -- and how to resolve this problem.
Several HLC member companies joined the event, exchanging examples that may be useful for resolving the crisis, which kills 700,000 people around the world each year.
At the briefing, Dr. Elaine Cox, Medicare director of infection prevention and pediatric antimicrobial stewardship at Indiana University Health, presented an educational overview. According to her, there are approximately 50 million inappropriate, unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions made each year. This is a clear cause for antibiotic resistance.
In addition, Dr. Michael Wong, global director of scientific affairs for Infectious Diseases at Merck Research Labs, stated that tracking the resistant bacteria is crucial. He encourages scientists to develop novel antibiotics so that bacteria do not yet have any resistance to the treatments.
Dr. Juan Ochoa, U.S. chief medical officer from Nestle Health Science, stated that nutrition has an important role in the immune system. Through “immunonutrition,” he proposes using arginine replacement therapy to decrease the need for antibiotics, as arginine -- an amino acid -- serves to boost the immune system.