IDSA Response to Federal Response to Antimicrobial Resistance

The Infectious Diseases Society of America is encouraged by today’s announcement from the Biden Administration on the allocation of more than $2 billion of American Rescue Plan funds to support infection prevention and efforts to combat antimicrobial resistance.

This investment serves as an important down payment to build the necessary infrastructure to effectively combat drug-resistant infections.

Within the funds announced today, $385 million will strengthen the nation’s AMR infrastructure, including:

• Expanding antibiotic resistance laboratory testing to give every state the ability to screen for drug-resistant pathogens;
• Supporting a stewardship leader in each state to work with local hospitals, nursing homes and other health care facilities on improving antibiotic use, with a focus on health equity;
• Increasing the number of health care facilities that report antibiotic use and resistance data to the CDC National Healthcare Safety Network.

While extremely promising, this funding was provided on a one-time basis from emergency supplemental funds approved by Congress earlier this year. This approach effectively creates a funding cliff that will halt these activities if sustainable annual funding is not provided.

IDSA continues to urge the Administration and Congress to work together to ensure these efforts are maintained and expanded as necessary to address the growing threat of AMR. IDSA looks forward to working with policymakers on other aspects of the comprehensive national response to AMR, including strengthening the infectious diseases workforce and revitalizing the antibiotic pipeline.