December 07, 2012
A roundup of news on drug resistance and other topics in global health.
CDDEP director Ramanan Laxminarayan writes about last month’s joint statement on antibiotic resistance for the Health Affairs GrantWatch blog. [Health Affairs]
An article published in The Lancet points out the uncertainty over how countries will react to the Global Fund s recent decision on the Affordable Medicines Facility – malaria (AMFm) and recommends the Fund to institutionalize experimentation within its operations. [The Lancet]
Researchers at the Australian Infectious Diseases Research Center are developing technologies to map the genomes of bacteria in order to prevent healthcare-associated infections. To learn more about the project, listen to this interview with the director of the center. [ABC News Australia]
The Chennai Declaration published in Indian Journal of Cancer recommends several initiatives to curb antimicrobial resistance in India, which include a mandatory Infection Control Team in hospitals, broadening antimicrobial resistance surveillance network, regulating antibiotic use in animals, and compulsory training on infection control and infectious diseases for medical students. [The Hindu]
According to research published in the journal BMC Health Services Research, universal methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) screening strategies are much more cost-intensive than targeted screening approaches.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in collaboration with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and several other health care agencies, has published the 2012 update of the A Public Health Plan to Combat Antimicrobial Resistance .
A BBC article explores the challenges of growing antibiotic resistance with particular consideration to gram-negative bacteria. [BBC]
The first World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Europe Global Health Histories Seminar titled – Antimicrobial Resistance: historical and contemporary perspectives – will be organized in Copenhagen, Denmark on January 11, 2013.
Thousands of Congolese refugees who have been resettled in Uganda face a potentially fatal danger of malaria due to the ongoing rainy season and a lack of resources to tackle the possible outbreak. [AlertNet]
A new study, published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, seeking to test the feasibility of a crowdsourced online game to detect malaria finds that non-expert participants achieved a counting accuracy higher than 99%.
In connection with a hepatitis C outbreak that sickened more than 30 people, a federal grand jury has indicted a former worker at New Hampshire s Exeter Hospital on fraud and product-tampering charges. [CNN]
Research published in the journal PLoS Pathogens reveals new insights on the immune system of mosquitoes: the study identifies a previously unknown mechanism in mosquitoes to destroy pathogens. [Futurity]
A study published in Health Affairs on primary health care in India reveals that patients have a high chance of being prescribed the wrong treatments. [World Bank]
With the continuing economic crisis in Greece, the country s healthcare situation is worsening: many hospitals now cannot afford basic supplies like gloves, gowns and alcohol wipes.
Policy Cures s five-year review of R&D funding for neglected diseases shows that overall funding for these diseases has been stagnant since 2007, even as they require increases in financing. [SciDev]
Developing countries, particularly those in Africa, have a high rate of cancers caused by simple infections. [BBC]
Image via reway2007/Flickr
