Olympia Snowe: “Today we face concerns about infectious disease which few could have anticipated. Over a half century ago, following the…”

“Today we face concerns about infectious disease which few could have anticipated. Over a half century ago, following the development of modern antibiotics, Nobel Laureate Sir McFarland Burnet summed up what many experts believed when he stated, "One can think of the middle of the twentieth century as the end of one of the most important social revolutions in history, the virtual elimination of infectious diseases as a significant factor in social life." How things have changed! Today we face grave concern about pandemic influenza, and in fact every day many of the most serious health threats come from infectious diseases. When we consider the greatest killers--HIV, tuberculosis, malaria--it is clear that infectious diseases have not abated. At the same time we have seen an alarming trend as existing antibiotics are becoming less effective in treating infections. We know that resistance to drugs can be developed, and that the more we expose bacteria to antibiotics, the more resistance we will see. So it is critical to address preserving lifesaving antibiotic drugs for use in treating disease.”