$6,555,608 Funding for AR Activities Fiscal Year 2017

One of 10 sites for the Emerging Infections Program

Funding to local health departments:

$510,636 - RAPID DETECTION & RESPONSE to emerging drug-resistant germs is critical to contain the spread of these infections. With 2016 funding, Georgia increased its capacity to respond to emerging threats. The HAI/AR program and state lab have coordinated on early implementation of a surveillance network and increased lab testing capabilities for the “nightmare bacteria” CRE.

$559,000 - HAI/AR PREVENTION works best when public health and healthcare facilities partner together to implement targeted, coordinated strategies to stop infections and improve antibiotic use. With 2016 funding, Georgia used CDC’s Targeted Assessment for Prevention strategy to identify facilities with high rates of Clostridium difficile, a potentially deadly diarrhea associated with antibiotic use. Several facilities improved their ability to rapidly identify and treat patients and decrease antibiotic use in colonized patients.

$493,233 - FOOD SAFETY projects protect communities by rapidly identifying drug-resistant foodborne bacteria to stop and solve outbreaks and improve prevention. Georgia implemented whole genome sequencing of Listeria, Salmonella, Campylobacter and E. coli isolates submitted to its lab and began uploading sequence data into PulseNet for nationwide monitoring of outbreaks and trends. In Fiscal Year 2018, Georgia will begin simultaneously monitoring these isolates for resistance genes. When outbreaks are detected, local CDC-supported epidemiologists investigate the cases to stop spread.

$1,036,740 - GONORRHEA RAPID DETECTION & RESPONSE works with state and local epidemiology and laboratory partners to test for and quickly respond to resistant gonorrhea to stop its spread in high risk communities. Only one treatment option remains for gonorrhea and resistance continues to grow. With 2016 funding, Georgia increased their local response capacity and initiated rapid antibiotic susceptibility testing—which determines how well a gonorrhea strain will respond to specific antibiotics. Georgia conducted rapid antibiotic susceptibility testing on 40 gonorrhea specimens in May. Test results are used to inform local outbreak response action, national treatment guidelines and antibiotic resistance trends.

$1,343,844 - EMERGING INFECTIONS PROGRAM (EIP) sites improve public health by translating population-based surveillance and research activities into informed policy and public health practice. CDC’s EIP network is a national resource for surveillance, prevention and control of emerging infectious diseases—like antibiotic-resistant bacteria and fungi. Learn more: www.cdc.gov/ncezid/dpei/eip.

Funding to Universities and healthcare partners:

$382,485 - EMORY UNIVERSITY: Innovative Prevention & Tracking. Investigators will develop computational tools to differentiate and analyze different types of DNA mixed in one sample. This project will help laboratories better understand the make-up of a mixture and its threat level.

$301,682 - GEORGIA TECH APPLIED RESEARCH CORPORATION: Microbiome Assessment & Intervention. Researchers will continue this project from last year to identify novel probiotic and antibiotic intervention strategies for patients with cystic fibrosis. The project will validate and improve new treatment strategies by implementing them in a small group of patients.

$362,668 - GEORGIA TECH APPLIED RESEARCH CORPORATION: Healthcare, Agriculture, and the Non-Healthcare Environment. This project will assess the types of antibiotic-resistant organisms in poultry houses, in addition to the amount of these organisms in a poultry house and further downstream in environmental waters. Researchers will also measure the amount of veterinary antibiotic residues in downstream environmental waters.

$507,954 - THE UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA: Healthcare, Agriculture, and the Non-Healthcare Environment. Investigators will sample surface water to analyze it for human and agricultural waste and antibiotic-resistant bacteria. This project will help to determine how antibiotics, pathogens and resistance elements move across environments and potentially pose a risk to human health.

$197,798 - UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA RESEARCH FOUNDATION, INC.: Healthcare, Agriculture, and the Non-Healthcare Environment. Researchers will collect and characterize azole-resistant fungal strains from agricultural and horticultural sites. Azoles are used to protect crops from fungi, but azole-resistant fungi can infect people and cause disease that is difficult to treat and can lead to death.

$96,783 - EMORY UNIVERSITY: Innovative Prevention & Tracking. In collaboration with CDC, researchers are investigating changes to the human microbiome that occur in two populations. The first is both donors and recipients of kidney transplants around the time of the transplant. The second is persons before and after international travel. These data can help understand international spread of antibiotic resistance as well as improve the detection, prevention and treatment of HAI/AR threats such as C. difficile, which can cause deadly diarrhea.

$68,825 - EMORY UNIVERSITY: Innovative Prevention & Tracking. Researchers are using bioinformatics techniques to further define genetic markers of drug-resistant gonorrhea. This data can help predict future types of antibiotic resistance in gonorrhea and identify transmission networks.

$137,170 - EMORY UNIVERSITY: Innovative Prevention & Tracking. Researchers will help solicit international isolates and support special studies for CDC.

$29,426 - EMORY UNIVERSITY: Innovative Prevention & Tracking. With CDC, researchers are conducting a large-scale investigation to determine causes of sepsis (a severe sign of infection) and identify potential interventions.

$108,364 - EMORY UNIVERSITY: Innovative Prevention & Tracking. With CDC, investigators will evaluate special studies on how resistant germs spread in dialysis centers, make recommendations for preventing HAIs and resistant infections in patients receiving dialysis, and promote infection prevention measures and improved antibiotic use throughout the renal community.

$419,000 - THE TASK FORCE FOR GLOBAL HEALTH/TEPHINET: Global Expertise & Capacity Enhancements. CDC’s global work to combat AR prevents the importation of AR threats into the United States. Experts are working in the country of Georgia to support the Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Affairs and the National Center for Disease Control and Public Health to develop an infection control and prevention program to prevent and control the spread of HAIs and drug-resistant germs.

Publication date from document properties.

Georgia-2017-CDC-AR-Investments.pdf