THE EMERGENT NEEDS FOR BASIC RESEARCH, EDUCATION, AND SURVEILLANCE OFANTIMICROBIAL RESISTANCE - PROBLEMS FACING THE REPORT FROM THE AMERICAN-SOCIETY-FOR-MICROBIOLOGY TASK-FORCE ON ANTIBIOTIC-RESISTANCE

The American Society for Microbiology (ASM) convened a task force to s tudy the current prevelance of antibiotic resistance and the problems associated with it. The task force produced a series of recommendation s centered around three key elements: (a) education of the physician a nd the public; (b) encouragement of more basic research directed to th e development of new antimicrobials and vaccines; and (c) the setting- up of a national surveillance system to both confirm and monitor the e xtent of the problem. Since the publication of this report in 1995, pr ogress has been slow. No ''consortium-style'' funding has been set asi de and any initiatives, such as the first steps in an education progra m by the ASM, are still in their planning phases. The spirit of cooper ation and trust needed to deal with this problem appears to be lacking . (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Inc.