Articles from Partnership to Fight Infectious Disease

An overwhelming majority of Americans across political leanings say vaccines are essential for public health and want policies that ensure continued access and expert guidance, according to new bipartisan polling conducted by Echelon Insights and Impact Research. The poll examined more than 1,000 voters' views on vaccine access, guidance, and decision-making.

The Partnership to Fight Infectious Disease (PFID) today released results of a public opinion poll that reveals most American voters, regardless of political affiliation, support the continued availability of FDA-approved vaccines and express concern over declining childhood vaccination rates.

The Partnership to Fight Infectious Disease (PFID) and a collective of influential global health leaders, including public and private health organizations today announced the launch of The Global AMR Diary, an online platform created to raise awareness of the escalating crisis of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) through the power of storytelling. Awareness that is desperately needed because significant worldwide efforts to date have yet to penetrate global consciousness about this public health emergency.

Infections due to antimicrobial resistance (AMR) are a significant threat to modern healthcare as well as to public health. In Europe, 33,000 individuals are estimated to die every year as a result of an infection caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria.1 The COVID-19 crisis reinforced the critical importance of treatments for infectious diseases, as many related deaths and severe cases involve not only the virus, but are also complicated by secondary bacterial infections.

The Partnership to Fight Infectious Disease (PFID) has released new data, analysis and projections into 2035 on the human and economic toll of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), specifically related to hospital-acquired infections. The data show that treating people who acquired AMR infections in healthcare settings incurred costs of $5.8 billion in direct medical care and another $7.2 billion in economic losses relating to premature death. PFID worked with GlobalData Plc on the analysis, which has yielded both national and state fact sheets highlighting the impact of AMR, what’s truly at stake and policy opportunities, like the PASTEUR Act, to better address this increasing public health emergency.

As health and policy leaders flock to the nation’s capital this week for the annual World Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Congress, the increasing threats of AMR and urgent need for policy solutions top the agenda. With more than 1,000 attendees gathering in Washington, DC to discuss the current landscape of AMR across the globe, there is great opportunity to advance solutions that will better address AMR now and into the future. That includes building momentum for Congress to act.

Today the Partnership to Fight Infectious Disease (PFID), along with the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), Boomer Esiason Foundation and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, unite to highlight the urgency for action on antimicrobial resistance (AMR). An estimated 2.8 million antibiotic-resistant infections occur in the U.S. each year and more than 35,000 people die as a result. The COVID-19 pandemic further compounded this already urgent situation. The threats of AMR do not discriminate and are not limited to treatment for serious infections, but also impact many medical services that rely upon the effective prevention of infection – cancer treatments, cesarean sections, organ transplantation, joint replacements, care of preterm infants and immunocompromised patients, and much more. Together, these groups, and many of their partners, are calling for legislative solutions to address AMR’s impact on people living with chronic illnesses, including cystic fibrosis (CF), and increasing threats across the health care continuum.

A group of more than 150 medical students from 22 states today called on Congress to make the Pioneering Antimicrobial Subscriptions to End Upsurging Resistance (PASTEUR) Act a priority. In a letter to Members of Congress, the students share their firsthand insight into the rising threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) among their patients, and the alarming role AMR plays in combatting infectious diseases and preparing for future pandemics.