From: Therese Dowd [dowd@uakron.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, January 09, 2001 6:16 PM
To: EXECSEC
Subject: antibiotic registry 

Commissioner Jane Henney at the
Food and Drug Administration and urge her to establish a
reporting system to determine the quantity of antibiotics
used in U.S. agriculture.

TIMING:

Dear Commissioner Jane Henney

I urge you to create a federal antibiotic reporting system and that this
should be a top
priority for this new administation.

I am a faculty member and public health nursing is my area of expertise.
As you know there is agreement among public health experts that the
overuse of antibiotics in agriculture is one of the significant impacts
on human health by contributing to the rise in drug-resistant
microorganisms.

But while there is growing acceptance of the causes of antibiotic
resistance, there are few publicly available data on the quantity of
antibiotics used in the United States -
data that are necessary for scientists to explore the links between
antibiotic use and the development of drug resistance and for developing
rational strategies to curb
use.

Therefore it is essential that some way to collect the data about
current usage be established. The information should be collected for
both human and agricultural use and should include the class,
indication, dosage, and treatment period.

Thank you for your consideration of my request

Therese Dowd, PhD, RN

dowd@uakron.edu
ph. 330 972-5924