January 17, 2014
A roundup of news on drug resistance and other topics in global health:
Members of the Lancet Commission on Investing in Health, of which CDDEP serves as Secretariat, took part in a United Nations discussion on a grand convergence in global health on January 16. A recording of the event can be found here. On January 15, an editorial in The Lancet discussed the potential advantages of making a grand convergence a UN Sustainable Development Goal after 2015. [UN, The Lancet]
India has been declared polio-free after three years with no new reported cases of the disease [CBS, The Telegraph]
Orbital Sciences Cygnus spacecraft carrying researchers and experiment materials to study the decreased effectiveness of antibiotics in space reached the International Space Station earlier this week. [NASA]
Nanosphere announced it has received FDA clearance to market an in-vitro diagnostic test for identifying gram-negative bacteria. According to the company press release, the Verigrene gram-negative blood culture test can identify a number of gram-negative bacteria and provides faster identification of resistance than the tests that are currently available. [Healio]
Exposure to sub-lethal concentrations of biocides commonly used in the food industry may increase antibiotic resistance in Escherichia coli. [Healio]
Life expectancy for women in the United States is rising in absolute terms but falling relative to other countries . While no clear reasons for this phenomenon have been determined, researchers have theorized it could be due to inadequate healthcare, relatively poor education, or higher levels of poverty. [The Atlantic]
The cost of treatment for outpatient treatment for child ear infections in the US amounts to $314 per child annually and $17 per child in additional costs for medications, totalling $3 billion annually. [UPI]
Photo of a child receiving an oral polio vaccination in Lucknow, Uttar Prandesh Province, India via RIBI Image Library/Flickr.
