2008 ACTION PLAN UPDATE

On December 12 and 13, 2007, the Interagency Task Force on Antimicrobial Resistance, held a consultants meeting in Atlanta, Georgia to obtain input and recommendations for revising and updating “A Public Health Action Plan to Combat Antimicrobial Resistance.” The following agencies comprise the Task Force:

• Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
• Department of Agriculture
• Department of Defense
• Department of Veterans Affairs
• Environmental Protection Agency
• Food and Drug Administration
• Health Resources and Services Administration
• National Institutes of Health

In addition to over fifty consultants from the United States, nine international consultants from Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, The Netherlands, and United Kingdom participated in the meeting. The consultants included experts from human and veterinary medicine, the pharmaceutical and diagnostics industries, animal husbandry industry, clinical microbiology, epidemiology, infectious disease and infection control specialists, and state and local public health departments. Representatives of most of the federal agencies also participated. The discussions focused on four topic areas: surveillance; prevention and control; research; and product development. The consultants focused on issues that they felt were critical to address over the next 3-5 years.

The consultants reviewed the 2001 Action Plan in detail and made a series of recommendations for the Interagency Task Force to consider. Each recommendation will be reviewed and discussed by the Task Force, which in turn will revise the Action Plan with input from each of the federal agencies that comprise the Task Force. A revised Action Plan should be available for public comment in the Fall of 2008.