Superb PBS Newshour segment on agricultural use of antibiotics + McKeena’s Big Chicken book

Dear All: 

I wrote a few weeks ago about the Stopping Superbugs series from PBS Newshour. PBS has since then added some superb new materials:

• A marvelous 10-minute video story on agricultural use of antibiotics
• A column on Maryn McKenna’s upcoming Big Chicken book (scheduled for release on 12 Sep)
• A column on the never-ending debate about taking the entire course of antibiotics

These build on their prior 3 stories (each about 10 minutes) + the PBS FRONTLINE story (about an hour):

• We are running out of effective antibiotics
• The financial barrier
• Is there an economic cure for the problem?
• FRONTLINE’s Hunting the Nightmare Bacteria.

All are highly recommended, with the pig farmer’s story in the newest video story being especially well done. I am always pleased to see these efforts to tell the story in non-technical terms to a broad audience … only by informed effort will we get the entire community moving in the right direction.

All best wishes, –jr

John H. Rex, MD | Chief Medical Officer, F2G Ltd. | Chief Strategy Officer, CARB-X | Expert-in-Residence, Wellcome Trust. Follow me on Twitter: @JohnRex_NewAbx. See past newsletters and subscribe for the future: https://13.43.35.2/blog.html

Upcoming meetings of interest to the AMR community:

• 5-8 Sep 2017: ASM-ESCMID conference on antibiotic R&D, including the CARB-X + GARDP Antibiotic Bootcamp
• 13 Sep 2017 (DC): FDA-CDRH workshop on diagnostic devices for detecting antimicrobial susceptibility & resistance
• 4-8 Oct 2017 (San Diego): IDWeek
• 29 Oct-1 Nov 2017 (Santa Fe): Keystone Symposium – Antimicrobials and Resistance: Opportunities and Challenges
• 24-27 Nov 2017 (Taipei): 30th International Congress of Chemotherapy & Infection (ICC)
• 12-14 Feb 2018 (Baltimore): ASM Biothreats Conference
• 11-16 Mar 2018 (Ventura Beach): Gordon Research Conference on Antibacterial Discovery
• 21-24 Apr 2018 (Madrid): ECCMID
• 7-11 Jun 2018 (Atlanta): ASM Microbe
• 22-27 Jul 2018 (Bryant University, Smithfield, RI): Gordon Research Conference on Drug Resistance for Cancer, Infectious Disease and Agriculture