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President Obama on Friday urged Congress to double the funding to confront the danger of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, calling it a major public health issue that, if left unchecked, would “cause tens of thousands of deaths, millions of illnesses.” The administration also issued a new plan for attacking the problem, part of a national strategy that Mr. Obama laid out in an executive order in September. (Tavernise and Shear, 3/27)

The White House announced an aggressive plan Friday to combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria, a mounting problem that causes an estimated 2 million illnesses and 23,000 deaths every year in the United States. The plan lists specific goals to fight the spread of antibiotic-resistant microbes over the next five years. It outlines steps to prevent and contain antibiotic-resistant infections through better surveillance of "superbugs," to maintain the effectiveness of current and new drugs, and to develop next-generation therapeutics. (Sun, 3/27)

Each year, more than 2 million Americans are sickened by these superbugs and about 23,000 die as a result, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The World Health Organization has warned that drug-resistant bacteria are on the rise in every part of the globe. The recent outbreak of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, or CRE, tied to contaminated duodenoscopes at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center is just one example of the problem. As many as half of people infected with CRE may die. (Kaplan, 3/27)

Critics said the White House needs to go further, particularly in terms of the antibiotics used in animals processed for meat. The Food and Drug Administration has already successfully encouraged many drug companies to phase out the use of antibiotics used for animal growth promotion. But advocacy groups have called on the agency to limit other uses of animal antibiotics as well, such as for disease prevention when holding animals in crowded conditions. (Pickler, 3/27)

The plan, formally known as the National Action Plan for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria, sets goals to reduce by 50% to 60% illnesses caused by some of the most lethal microbes known to man by 2020. It seeks enhanced laboratory capacity across the U.S. to detect the worst pathogens, and it calls on federal agencies to set new rules aimed at curbing dangerous microbes. (Burton and Tracy, 3/27)

The goal is to control the spread of these so-called ‘superbugs’ by 2020 and the plan outlines five goals to accomplish over the next five years. These include slowing the spread of resistant bacteria; strengthening surveillance efforts; speed development of diagnostic tests; hasten R&D for generating new drugs, and improve coordination among government agencies. (Silverman, 3/27)

With painstaking effort, a group of Chicago hospitals has managed to cut by half the number of infections caused by an especially deadly type of superbug. Now U.S. health officials want that kind of campaign to go national. The White House on Friday told the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to slash rates of infections from antibiotic-resistant bacteria by 2020 as part of a plan to prevent patient deaths and curb overuse of antibiotics administered to humans and animals. (Steenhuysen and Begley, 3/30)

The Obama administration released a plan Friday to halt the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the wake of a deadly outbreak at a Los Angeles hospital in February. The plan seeks to reduce the rates of “superbug” infections in the next five years by limiting overuse of antibiotics in medicine and agriculture, according to a White House fact sheet. The federal government will invest in new antibiotic research and require hospitals to increase infection controls. (Sink and Edney, 3/27)