August 24, 2013
A roundup of news on drug resistance and other topics in global health.
An article on India s antibiotic policy published in the BMJ Group Blogs discusses why antibiotic resistance is growing rapidly in India and quotes CDDEP director on some specific policies that could be introduced to curtail the problem of antibiotic resistance in India. [BMJ]
A study conducted by members of the working group of the in Nepal and published in Nature s Scientific Reports journal analyzed the presence of various pathogens in central nervous system (CNS) infections at a hospital in Nepal and found that the Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) and enteroviruses were the most common pathogens detected. [Nature]
A new study published in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases suggests an increasing role of produce in salmonella food poisoning by tracing an outbreak of salmonella that sickened about 100 people in five US states last year to tempeh. [NY Times]
An op-ed in The Washington Post by a former U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner argues that the organization needs to improve its surveillance of antibiotic use in animals. If the FDA s voluntary guidelines drafted in April 2012 to limit animal antibiotic overuse are not followed, then, the author argues, enforceable regulation should be implemented. Another article in The Huffington Post also writes on the threats associated with the overuse and misuse of antibiotics in livestock. [Washington Post, Huffington Post]
A study published in the Journal of Pharmaceutical Policy and Practice analyzes access to a basket of 24 essential and eight high-end antibiotics in New Delhi and suggests that inappropriate availability and pricing of newer generation antibiotics, which may currently be bought without prescription, is likely to lead to their overuse and increased resistance. [JoPPP]
A recent study in the journal Nature Communications suggests that the people in mainland China have a higher abundance of antibiotic-resistant genes in their gut microbiota than European individuals. [South China Morning Post]
New research published in the journal PLoS Pathogens that analyzed 63 genomes of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and related pathogenic mycobacteria from around the world found evidence of strong purifying selection and identified different patterns of variation across categories of gene function. The study suggests that these two factors, combined with the TB bacterium s high degree of tolerance for beneficial mutations, have contributed to TB s rapid spread and to the evolution of drug-resistant strains of TB. [Science 2.0]
The BBC reported on a new mobile application called Peek that uses the cellphone camera to scan the lens of the eye for cataracts and the flashlight to check for other eye diseases. Devices with this application, which are less bulky and much cheaper than traditional eye examination equipment, are being trialed on 5,000 people in Kenya. [BBC]
By analyzing about five million mutations from 7,042 cancers, new research published in the journal Nature has identified 21 distinct mutational signatures, some of which point to factors like smoking and age that are already known to contribute to cancer, while the rest point to processes not previously known to be associated with cancer or to those that do not have known processes that cause them.
A paper published in the journal Social Science Research Network developed an empirical framework to measure relative legal complexity and found that the most complex area of the United States Code is Title 42 – Public Health & Welfare. [SSRN]
Image via Thiru/Flickr
