October 16, 2015
A roundup of news on drug resistance and other topics in global health.
Declining antibiotic efficacy in surgical and blood cancer chemotherapy prophylaxis could lead to 120,000 more infections in the United States annually. In a first-of-its-kind analysis, published today in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, CDDEP researchers estimate the increase in infections and infection-related deaths that reduced antibiotic efficacy could have on prophylactic antibiotic use for blood cancer chemotherapy and the ten most common surgical procedures performed in the U.S. each year. CDDEP Associate Director Hellen Gelband puts the study in perspective on the CDDEP blog, “From Boilerplate to Lives Lost: Surgery, Cancer and Antibiotics.” [The Lancet Infectious Diseases, CDDEP]
Some early news coverage of the study:
-BBC News: “Fears grow over increased antibiotic resistance”
–The Atlantic: “How antibiotic resistance could make common surgeries more dangerous”
California Governor Jerry Brown signed SB27 into law on Sunday, outlawing the use of antibiotics for agricultural growth promotion in the state. The law, which prohibits the use of medically important antimicrobial drugs in livestock solely for the purpose of growth promotion, will go into effect January 2018. California is the first state to pass such a law in the United States. [San Jose Mercury News]
Hospital antibiotic stewardship programs may reduce the risk of children contracting Clostridium difficile infection, according to research presented at IDWeek, the annual meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. C. diff rates decreased from 9.2 to 2.8 cases per 10,000 patient-days during the first three years of the UC Davis Children’s Hospital’s antibiotic stewardship program. The program included therapy adjustments based on thrice-weekly chart reviews. In addition to improved outcomes, antibiotic expenditures decreased by 20 percent over the period. [Infectious Diseases Society of America]
Healthcare worker deaths at India’s largest tuberculosis hospital may be significantly under-reported, according to a local workers’ union and independent reports. According to official reports, 69 staff members at the state-run Sewri hospital have contracted TB since 2011 and 12 have died. An investigation by the director of the Mumbai-based Foundation for Medical Research found 65 worker deaths, including some from drug-resistant TB. [Reuters]
Extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)-producing E. coli incidence nearly doubled in U.S. community hospitals between 2009 and 2014. The study, published in Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, is based on more than 8 million patient-days of hospital records from 26 community hospitals in the southeastern United States. The rates increased from 5.28 to 10.5 infections per 100,000 patients during the five years covered. [Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, Outbreak News Today]
A discovery made while searching for a malaria vaccine for pregnant women may provide the basis for a new cancer treatment. Researchers found that “the carbohydrate that the malaria parasite attaches itself to in the placenta in pregnant women is identical to a carbohydrate found in cancer cells.” They isolated the malaria protein that attaches to the molecule and added a toxin to it, which is released when it attaches to cancer cells. The protein was effective about 90 percent of the time in laboratory tests on thousands of tumor types. [Cancer Cell, University of Copenhagen]
The estrogen-blocking breast cancer drug tamoxifen may boost immunity to methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). In laboratory mice, the drug enhanced the immune response of certain white blood cells, offering MRSA-infected mice significant protection against the bacteria. Thirty-five percent of tamoxifen-treated mice survived five days after infection, while none of the controls survived more than one day. [Nature Communications, Washington Post]
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