lunes, 28 de abril de 2014

CDC Press Release: CDC EIS Conference: Monday Presentation Schedule

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) sent this bulletin at 04/28/2014 10:46 AM EDT

Press Release

Embargoed until: Monday, April 28, 2014, 10:00 a.m. ET
Contact: CDC Media Relations
(404) 639-3286

CDC EIS Conference: Monday Presentation Schedule

Front-line disease detectives present investigation findings

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today kicks off its 63rd Annual Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) Conference. Held April 28 to May 1, the event highlights the life-saving work of its current EIS officers or “disease detectives” and welcomes the incoming class of 78 EIS officers. Presentations focus on EIS investigations, the boots-on-the-ground work behind key CDC health initiatives. More details about Monday’s agenda are available below.

Antibiotic resistance (AR) is a rapidly growing threat. As more and more bacteria become drug resistant, the antibiotics needed to treat infections do not work as well – in some cases, not at all. Each year, more than two million Americans get infections resistant to antibiotics; 23,000 die. If antibiotic resistance continues to expand, minor infections could become life threatening and even routine surgeries would become dangerous.

"People assume that antibiotics will always be there to fight the worst infections, but antimicrobial resistance is robbing us of that certainty and new drug-resistant pathogens are emerging," said CDC Director Thomas R. Frieden, M.D., M.P.H. "It's not enough to hope that we'll have effective drugs to combat these infections. We must all act now to safeguard this important resource."