March 21, 2014
A roundup of news on drug resistance and other topics in global health.
Infections caused by a type of antibiotic-resistant bacteria are increasing among U.S. children, according to a new study co-authored by CDDEP researchers and published in the Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society. The increasing rate of infections, which are particularly prevalent among children between 1 and 5 years old, is raising concerns about dwindling treatment options. [CDDEP]
Commenting on research on antibiotic use in non-EU European countries published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, CDDEP Director Ramanan Laxminarayan, along with Thomas Van Boeckel, write that appropriate stewardship programs can only be designed with necessary systematic, regular data on antibiotic consumption in other parts of the world that help study the determinants of antibiotic prescribing and use. [Science Codex]
ResistanceMap was featured this week on T l Qu bec s Le Code Chastenay in a segment on antibiotic resistance. The episode can now be viewed online (in Canada only). [Le Code Chastenay]
A new study published in The Lancet finds that China s shift in treating TB from hospitals to public health centres, which implement the directly observed treatment, short-course (DOTS) strategy, has helped reduce the country s TB prevalence by more than half during 1990-2010. [BBC]
Using genome sequencing, researchers at the NIH have shown that deadly strains of carbapenem-resistant K. pneumoniae known as ST258 arose from at least two different lineages. The research published in PNAS contradicts the previous thought among researchers that ST258 K. pneumoniae evolved from a single ancestor. [VN Daily]
India s Central TB division has launched a mobile application, named Nikshay, which makes notifying TB cases simpler and quicker. In the pilot phase of the project, general practitioners in Mumbai will test the application, which will also update the central server in order to avoid duplication. [DNA India]
Manu Prakash, a Stanford PhD student, has developed an Origami-based paper microscope that costs just 50 cents to make. Prakash hopes his invention will one day be distributed widely to help detect blood-borne diseases such as malaria. [Stanford]
International aid group Doctors Without Borders has released a crisis alert highlighting the global threat of antibiotic-resistant tuberculosis. The organization says urgent action is needed to address the problem. [VOA]
An image created by Stanford University electron microscopy expert Lydia-Marie Joubert is a stark reminder of the threat of antibiotic resistance. By overlaying a photograph of artist Francis Hewlett s sculpture of a human hand with epifluorescence micrographs of Pseudomonas bacteria, she shows how resistant bacteria (green) are rapidly overtaking susceptible bacteria (red). [NIH Director s Blog]
Image via Science.
