March 02, 2012
A round-up of news on drug resistance and other topics in global health.
A new peer-reviewed, open access journal, Antimicrobial Resistance & Infection Control, has launched in the first months of 2012. Early articles examine patterns of ESBL-producing Acinetobacter spp. in Iran and MRSA in Cuba, among several other topics.
ReAct puts a spotlight on an aggregated series of articles focusing on old and forgotten antibiotics.
Could proposed cuts in President Obama s FY2013 budget request put critical health programs in jeopardy? An article in Nature argues that the new budget may place the CDC in “fiscal peril.” Meanwhile, the Global Health Technology Coalition (GHTC) urges the Administration to rethink reductions in spending on global health initiatives.
An editorial in the American Journal of Gastroenterology responds to the growing burden of community-acquired C. difficile infections. A population-based study in Minnesota between 1991 and 2005 found that 41% of C. difficile cases were community-acquired. Furthermore, those who acquired the serious diarrheal disease in the community were more likely to be young, otherwise healthy, and female, and less likely to have had prior exposure to antibiotics.
A study in PLoS Medicine of three sites in Bangladesh, India, and Nepal finds that clean delivery kits can reduce neonatal mortality from sepsis, a bacterial infection that overtakes the bloodstream.
The Global Congenital Syphilis Partnership estimates that nearly one million newborn babies could be saved each year by deploying rapid syphilis tests in developing countries. Syphilis is treatable with penicillin, but if left untreated in pregnant women can lead to miscarriage, stillbirth, and neonatal death.
The California Supreme Court is reviewing whether pay for delay deals, in which pharmaceutical companies pay generic drugmakers to delay release of generic products into the market, violate anti-trust laws. The court will review a class-action lawsuit over a settlement between Bayer and a generic maker of the antibiotic ciprofloxacin. California Watch examines how these pay for delay deals add to the cost of prescription drugs in the United States.
The National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS) Retail Meat Annual Report for 2010 (U.S.) is now available. Download the highlights.
A study in the Archives of Internal Medicine suggests that the influenza vaccine may have fewer benefits among the elderly than previously thought.
Finally, from the UN s Tumblr, Ban Ki-moon kicks off a polio vaccination campaign in Angola.
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