This week, the ATS joined the Stakeholder Forum on Antibiotic Resistance (S-FAR) in a letter to the director of the CDC, Robert Redfield, MD, requesting that a portion of the $4.3 billion in funding provided for the CDC in the COVID-19 measure enacted in late March be utilized to expand antibiotic stewardship and data collection and additionally, surveillance of secondary bacterial infections and resistance related to COVID-19.

The S-FAR letter points out that although it is not yet clear how impactful secondary bacterial infections are in the COVID-19 pandemic, some recent studies have indicated notable occurrence of such infections, including ventilator-associated pneumonia, and as a result, increased risks to patients with such infections. The S-FAR letter concludes, “We hope that expanding antibiotic resistance surveillance and antibiotic stewardship activities during this critical time will help to detect, prevent and treat potentially resistant secondary infections in COVID-19 patients.