2012 Update of the a Public Health Action Plan to Combat Antimicrobial Resistance

The Interagency Task Force on Antimicrobial Resistance (ITFAR) has published the 2012 Update of A Public Health Action Plan to Combat Antimicrobial Resistance [PDF - 40 pages]. The Action Plan, originally published in 2001 [PDF - 46 pages], and revised in 2011 [PDF - 34 pages], is a blueprint for specific, coordinated federal actions to address the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance in the United States. The Action Plan addresses the four areas of Federal action: surveillance, prevention and control, research and product development. The Action Plan provides a listing of projects that the participating Federal agencies and departments are pursuing or planning to pursue in an effort to respond to the complex public health risk posed by antimicrobial resistance.

This update adds new implementation steps/projects and retires completed ones. Completed projects are listed in Appendix A. Readers are referred to the 2011 Progress towards Implementation of: A Public Health Action Plan to Combat Antimicrobial Resistance [PDF - 69 pages] for updates from the past year about the projects listed in the Action Plan. The ITFAR has published these Annual Progress Reports since 2001 and will continue to do so.

The Task Force and all participating Federal agencies are continuing to stress the importance of good communication with the many stakeholders, including health professionals and the public, who share the Task Force’s goals of preventing and controlling, and ensuring available therapy for, antimicrobial resistant infections.

By the end of 2013, the ITFAR plans to make the Action Plan available on an interactive website providing some additional details on the actions and projects and simplifying access to the information contained in the Action Plan.