Antibiotic resistance is not a priority in the U.S.

Jul 7 2011

Author and journalist Maryn McKenna in her "Superbug" blog on Wired.com examines U.S. spending on drug-resistant pathogens, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). When analyzed by Eli Perencevich of the University of Iowa and colleagues, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases' budget "awards approximately $69,000 in grant funds" for each annual AIDS-related death in the U.S., and "for every death from MRSA, it awards $570," she writes.

With the WHO, the CDC, the Lancet, major medical societies, and two bills in Congress recognizing the importance of drug-resistant pathogens, "[y]ou'd think, with all those calls for attention, that combating antibiotic resistance would be a priority in the United States. But if we can take how much we spend to research a problem as a gauge of how much we care about it, then antibiotic resistance is no priority at all," McKenna writes (7/5).