January 31, 2014
A roundup of news on drug resistance and other topics in global health.
In a guest blog post, University of Chicago Professor Anup Malani and researcher Phoebe Holtzman discuss the Indian Health Insurance Experiment, a 12,000-household study of the Indian government s health insurance program. [CDDEP]
A mysterious form of chronic kidney disease, currently known as Mesoamerican neuropathy, has killed thousands of people most young male agricultural workers in Central America. [PLoS]
According to the World Economic Forum s Global Risks 2014 report, antibiotic resistance has been highlighted as a major threat to modern society. [ReAct]
Drug resistant tuberculosis is spreading in Russia, with nearly half of all TB isolates in a recent study being multi-drug-resistant and 16% showing resistance to second-line drugs. [Nature]
A new class of antibiotics discovered by scientists at St. Jude Children s Research Hospital could help in overcoming drug-resistant TB. [Health24]
A new report by the Natural Resources Defense Council found that the US Food and Drug Administration has allowed 30 potentially harmful antibiotics 18 deemed to pose a high risk of exposing humans to antibiotic-resistant bacteria through the food supply to remain on the market for use in livestock food and water. [TIME]
A study published in JAMA Internal Medicine on January 27 reveals a simple way to decrease unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions: having physicians sign a poster-sized commitment letter stating they would only prescribe medicines in line with prescription guidelines and then displaying the letter in the examination room reduced inappropriate antibiotic prescriptions during flu season were reduced by 20 percent. [Scientific American]
An antibiotic smart bomb developed by researchers at North Carolina State University identifies specific strains of bacteria and severs their DNA, thereby eliminating the infection. [R&D]
Governments and major insurers must publicly commit to paying 10-50 times more than they currently do for drugs that are effective against resistant bacteria, writes Matthew Herper of Forbes. [Forbes]
The spread of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) in the Canadian province of British Columbia has led some hospitals to step up screening processes and alarmed infectious di sease experts, who say a more reliable national warning system is needed. [CBC]
Photo via eyeweed/Flickr
