August 09, 2013
A weekly roundup of news on drug resistance and other topics in global health.
An article on antibiotic resistance published in Co.Exist highlights CDDEP research through Extending the Cure project that stresses on the need to treat antibiotics as a shared natural resource to preserve antibiotic effectiveness. Read more on the CDDEP blog. [Co.Exist]
A study published in the journal Science describes the Phase I trial of a potential malaria vaccine, known as PfSPZ, and finds the vaccine to be safe, to generate an immune system response, and to offer protection against malaria infection in healthy adults. [Nature, NIH News, ScienceNews]
Extrapolating data from the Netherlands, a new study published in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases estimates that there are 1,518 deaths and 67,236 days of hospital admissions in Europe due to drug-resistant E. coli that are attributable to cephalosporin and other antibiotic use in poultry. [CDC]
In an interview with EurActiv, Dr. Mario Raviglione, director of the WHO s Global Tuberculosis Program, talks about infectious diseases and suggests that the European Union (EU) should help Eastern European countries in controlling the increasing number of infections in those countries. [EurActiv]
The BBC explores the development of a new antibiotic effective against bioweapons and superbugs in its program Science In Action. [BBC]
New research in Nature Medicine describes the development of a new compound that uses a novel mechanism of action to successfully treat drug-resistant tuberculosis infections in mice. [Nature Blog]
Another research paper on mice published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation suggests that the removal of the protein Olfm4 from the white blood cells of mice infected with chronic granulomatous disease (CGD) increases their tolerance to S. aureus infections. [Forbes]
According to a study in the Malaria Journal, rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) might be equally as effective as microscopy in the diagnosis of malaria; however, RDTs might not be as ideal as seen in this paper. [Thomson Reuters Foundation]
New MIT research published in the journal Science describes how a protein called AXL helps cancer cells become drug-resistant. [MIT News]
Ron Najafi, the CEO of NovaBay Pharmaceuticals, talks about new antimicrobials, named Aganocides, being developed by his firm that are potent against both bacteria and viruses, yet gentle to human tissue. [News Medical]
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E. coli image via Nathan Reading/Flickr
