RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, one of the most serious threats to health in the United States and globally is the increasing prevalence of antibiotic resistant infections caused by bacteria known as "superbugs" because they are not treatable by existing antibiotics; and
WHEREAS, the annual cost of antibiotic-resistant infections to United States healthcare is $26 billion; and
WHEREAS, it is estimated that patients stay in hospitals a total of eight million extra days every year due to antibiotic-resistant infections; and
WHEREAS, in 2005 19,000 people died from the staph superbug known as MRSA, which was more than those who died from from AIDS, from emphysema, or by homicide that year; and
WHEREAS, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported more recently that at least two million Americans suffer from antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections each year and 23,000 Americans die from those infections; and
WHEREAS, the medical and social costs of superbug infections in just one hospital for one year have been estimated to be between $13 million and $18 million; and
WHEREAS, 80 percent of the antibiotics sold in the United States is routinely used non-therapeutically on livestock to compensate for keeping them in unsanitary and overcrowded conditions as well as to make animals grow faster; and
WHEREAS, the widespread non-therapeutic use vastly increases the likelihood that the otherwise small number of disease-resistant bacteria can spread, affecting meat and poultry, and growing crops fertilized by affected animal droppings, and thereby spread to humans; and
WHEREAS, in January 2013 Consumer Reports published test results indicating that pork products sold nationwide had high levels of salmonella and other dangerous bacteria, following an earlier report finding similar results in poultry products;
WHEREAS, according to Elizabeth Jungman, the Pew Charitable Trust's director of drug safety and innovation, "antibiotic resistance is rapidly outpacing the development of new drugs. It's a threat we can't afford to ignore," and
WHEREAS, a ban in Denmark on non-therapeutic antibiotics in food animals resulted in little change in animal morbidity and mortality, and only a modest increase in production cost when compared to the enormous costs of healthcare resulting from infected food; NOW, THEREFORE,
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Mayor and Members of the City Council of Chicago urge the Congress of the United States to declare a ban on the non-therapeutic use of antibiotics in the production of livestock by the passage of House Bill 1150, the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act (PAMTA) in the House of Representatives and of Senate Bill 1256, the Prevention of Antibiotic Resistance Act (PARA) in the United States Senate; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that a copy of this Resolution be provided to Senator Dick Durbin, Senator Mark Kirk, and the members of the Chicago delegation in the United States House of Representatives.