PACCARB wants to hear from you! Deadline, 7 Jan 2019

Dear All:

The US Presidential Advisory Council on Combating Antimicrobial Resistant Bacteria (PACCARB) has released a request for information (RFI) in which it seeks comments on priority actions for the future. Here is the link to the Federal Register notice:

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/11/23/2018-25435/notice-of-request-for-information-a-notice-by-the-presidential-advisory-council-on-combating

In brief, PACCARB has pursued these 5 goals from the first US National Action Plan (NAP) during its first three years of existence:

1. Slow the emergence of resistant bacteria and prevent the spread of resistant infections;
2. Strengthen national One Health surveillance efforts to combat resistance;
3. Advance development and use of rapid and innovative diagnostic tests for identification and characterization of resistant bacteria;
4. Accelerate basic and applied research and development for new antibiotics and other therapeutics, including vaccines; and
5. Improve international collaboration and capacities for antibiotic resistance prevention, surveillance, control and antibiotic research and development.

To assist in updating the US NAP so that it fully addresses new and emerging challenges, PACCARB would like to hear from the community about new areas for priority work. Your response can cover a range of priority areas for human, animal, and environmental health, including surveillance, research and development, stewardship practices, infection prevention and control practices, and/or other areas for consideration.

More details are found in the FR notice at the link above. You can also find details regarding PACCARB’s prior reports and recommendations on the PACCARB website.

You can submit your ideas via this webpage. The deadline is 7 Jan 2019. Please do consider taking the time to provide your input!

All best wishes, –jr

John H. Rex, MD | Chief Medical Officer, F2G Ltd. | 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/

Upcoming meetings of interest to the AMR community:

• 29-30 Nov 2018 (Birmingham, UK): BSAC (British Society Antimicrobial Chemotherapy): Antibiotic Resistance Mechanisms Workshop for Researchers
• 7 Dec 2018 (Boston, MA): BAARN, Boston Area Antimicrobial Resistance Network 2018 symposium, 8:30am to 7pm at The Starr Center (185 Cambridge Street, Boston, MA). This is an excellent networking opportunity, especially for those based in the Boston area. Register here.
• 15 Jan 2018 (London): BSAC’s Antimicrobial Chemotherapy Conference 2019: “An ABC for everyone involved in developing new antimicrobials.” Details here.
• 14-15 Mar 2019 (Berlin): BEAM– and ND4BB-ENABLE-sponsored Berlin Conference on Novel Antimicrobials and AMR Diagnostics. Details here.
• 21-22 Mar 2019 (Birmingham, UK): BSAC Spring Conference.
• 19-27 Oct 2019 (Annecy, France): International Course on Antibiotics and Resistance (ICARe) – A soup-to-nuts intensive residential training program on all things AMR, especially R&D for new antibiotics. See this link for details.