February 08, 2014
A roundup of news on drug resistance and other topics in global health.
The third and last part of the survey launched by the Antimicrobial Stewardship and Antimicrobial Resistance working groups at the International Society of Chemotherapy is still accessible online. These surveys seek to evaluate how antibiotics are used in the treatment of drug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria across the world. [CDDEP]
The US Department of Health and Human Services recently announced that the agency will work in a public-private partnership to develop Carbavance, a drug that could potentially help combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria like carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) and also help counter two kinds of bioterrorism threats. [HHS.gov]
In a new study published in Science, researchers report the discovery of Protein M, an unusual bacterial protein that possibly acts as a universal decoy for antibodies and helps some bacteria evade the [human] immune response and establish long-term infections. [EurekAlert]
A federally sponsored plan to reduce healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) in the US has been found to be associated with lower HAI rates, according to articles published in the journal Medical Care. [EurekAlert]
A new report published by the Access to Medicine Foundation finds that 17 of the 20 largest research-based pharmaceutical companies have made progress in their overall Access to Medicine scores. [The Lancet Global Health]
A new study published in The Lancet reports on the world s first confirmed case of human infection with a novel reassortant avian influenza A H10N8 virus in China. [MNT]
A new study by the University of Colorado School of Medicine revealed that low vaccination rates among adults are leading to higher mortality rates indeed, in the US 30,000 adults die each year from vaccine-preventable diseases each year. The CDC also reported that US adults aren t taking advantage of key vaccines that could prevent them from contracting life-threatening diseases, including pneumonia and hepatitis. [Science Daily, HealthDay]
Drugs that recruit antibodies from a patient s own immune system to kill cancerous tumors are showing significant promise in the treatment of certain cancers; however, the chance of tumors recurring remains high. Researchers at MIT have shown that the use of the drug cyclophosphamide can diminish the chance of cancerous tumors recurring by making them more vulnerable to antibody treatment. [MIT]
In an interview with The Cancer Letter, Peter Boyle, president of the International Prevention Research Institute (IPRI), emphasizes the huge threats that chronic diseases increasingly pose in developing countries and highlights the need for new, bold thinking. The institute had published a 500-page document titled State of Oncology 2013, which discussed the disparities in cancer outcomes between higher- and lower-resource countries. [Forbes]
A recent study published in the journal BMC Infectious Diseases performed meta-analysis and meta-regression on 243 studies to assess the association between antibiotic use and antibiotic resistance in the community and found that antibiotic consumption was associated with the development of antibiotic resistance.
In a recent article on antibiotic resistance, The Telegraph writes that the “golden age of medicine is behind us.” The article also includes some visualizations on antibiotic use and resistance. [The Telegraph]
An article in PBS Newshour discusses why the consumption and spending on pharmaceuticals is higher in the US than other countries. [PBS]
How accurate are the data used in development, and could the UN s High-Level Panel s call for a data revolution help improve data quality? [WPR]
The Atlantic writes that commercial orange juice is often misunderstood as a health drink, when in fact, it is nutritionally, not much better than soda. [The Atlantic]
