Volume 384, Issue 9948, 20 September 2014
WORLD REPORT The US President’s science council will soon publish its long-awaited report on antibiotic resistance. But will it affect the debate? Washington Correspondent Susan Jaffe reports.
Since its reformation 5 years ago, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) has grappled with some of the most difficult scientific controversies, including climate change and cybersecurity. In the next few weeks, the council will issue recommendations for controlling antibiotic resistance. “Antibiotic-resistant infections are associated with an additional 23 000 deaths in the USA each year”, Eric Lander, the report’s cochair, told The Lancet. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has estimated that the economic effect of antibiotic-resistant infections is at least US$50 billion annually in direct health-care costs and lost productivity. [MORE] [PDF]
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