Medical Professional Letter to President Obama on Antibiotics Resistance
Please ban the overuse of antibiotics on factory farms
Dear President Obama,
As health organizations, doctors, nurses, and medical professionals, we are deeply concerned about the threat to public health caused by the widespread overuse of antibiotics on factory farms.
We strongly urge you to direct the Food and Drug Administration to ban the practice of regularly giving antibiotics to healthy animals. Antibiotics are meant to be given in precise doses to treat specific types of infections. However, the largest users of antibiotics are actually factory farming operations, which routinely mix huge quantities of antibiotics into the feed they give healthy animals. Up to 80 percent of all antibiotics used in the United States are used on livestock.
This practice increases the likelihood that all kinds of bacteria, including the ones that make people sick, will become resistant to drugs, and our life-saving medicines won’t work. This problem is both significant and worsening. Sixty percent of staph infections in hospitals are now resistant to antibiotics, up from 2 percent thirty years ago. In all, more than 2 million Americans get sick from antibiotic-resistant infections each year, and 23,000 people die. We stand to lose antibiotics as a critical tool to treat our patients and save lives.
Please ban the widespread overuse of antibiotics on factory farms.
Sincerely,
Sara E. Smith, JD – TexPIRG Program Director
Dr. Ed Septimus, M.D., F.I.D.S.A, F.A.C.P, F.S.H.E.A
Rosanna Thurman, Pharm.D. – Director of Pharmacy, Cook Children’s Medical Center
David S Buck, MD, MPH – Founder & President, Healthcare for the Homeless – Houston, Professor, Dept of Family & Community Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine
Pui-Kwong Chan, Ph.D. – Professor, Department of Pharmacology, Baylor College of Medicine
Karl E. Klose, Ph.D. – Professor, South Texas Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases
Francisco Gonzalez-Lima, Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin College of Pharmacy Professor
George D. Di Giovanni, PhD – Professor, Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, Center for Infectious Diseases, University of Texas-Houston School of Public Health
Kristin Kostick, Ph.D – Research Associate, Baylor College of Medicine; Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy
Semyon A. Risin, M.D., Ph.D. – The University of Texas Medical School at Houston
Jeffrey Mott, DHSc, PA-C – Assistant Professor, University of North Texas Health Science Center
Elaine A. Hall – Baylor College of Medicine, Dept. of Pathology
Michelle DuBois West, RN BSN – St. David’s Healthcare
Dr. Regina D. Easlon, DDS
Mary Lynn Taylor, RN, BSN, RDH
Dr. Amy Neuzil, ND – Texas Association of Naturopathic Doctors
Rachel Easlon, Dental Hygienist
Kathie Belt, RN
Stewart Dodson, City of Paris, Texas EMS Paramedic
Kellie Newman, City of Paris, Texas EMS Paramedic
Mark Easlon, Easlon Dental
Alice Lochman, RN, BSN, CCRN
Andrea Presson, RN
Christine Bennett RN
Brenda Wyrick, RN
Shoshana Katz, RN
Dirk Rogers RN
Jared K. Knaup, Physical Therapy Assistant, B.S. Health Psychology
Jeneen Schloz – The People’s Rx
Michael Morningstar – Great NEWS Perfect Health
Dr. Jeff Echols, D.C. ACN
Reena Singh, ND – Austin ND Clinic
Teresa Nguyen, University of Texas at Austin College of Pharmacy Student
Justin Brewer, University of Texas at Austin College of Pharmacy Student
Nina Nyberg, University of Texas at Austin College of Pharmacy Student
Brenna Youssef – Texas Tech University School of Nursing Student
