1.   Antibiotic use can be reduced by better hospital hygiene measures and wider use of vaccines among very young and very old individuals.

2.   Because farmers are not required to report antibiotic use in animals, the reduction cannot be documented.

3.   According to the report, antibiotic use in farm animals may cause antibiotic resistance in humans to appear earlier than it would were the drugs not administered.

4.   Also, prolonged antibiotic use creates indirect risks to the community at large by promoting resistance of microbes to the drugs.

5.   But about a third of the cases could be prevented through stricter infection control and antibiotic use.

6.   But in the absence of any monitoring by the federal government, some remain skeptical about assertions that antibiotic use has been reduced.

7.   But there seems little doubt that antibiotic use will need to be cut back sharply before it produces even more microbes that are resistant to modern medicines.

8.   Create a national database on antibiotic use and resistance trends that would be accessible to farmers, veterinarians, doctors and other interest groups.

9.   Given the uncertainty about the spread of resistance, it is even more important that health professionals and the public become judicious about antibiotic use, Gerberding said.

10.   In settings where antibiotic use has been curtailed, the results can be dramatic.