October 25, 2013
A roundup of news on drug resistance and other topics in global health.
CDDEP s director Ramanan Laxminarayan was featured in a recent PBS Frontline documentary on the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Find the full documentary here and an edited transcript of Ramanan s interview here. [CDDEP, PBS]
A new study co-authored by CDDEP researchers and published in the journal Antimicrobial Resistance & Infection Control finds that clinicians might be relying on national resistance data, rather than local data, when prescribing antibiotics for MRSA infections. This study further suggests that antimicrobial prescribing could be improved by providing clinicians access to local resistance data. [ARIC]
More than 1.7 million patients pick up infections in US hospitals each year. To spread awareness about healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) CDDEP partnered with the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) to support International Infection Prevention Week. [APIC, CDDEP]
The WHO s recently published Global tuberculosis report 2013 shows that while the incidence of TB is declining, cases of multidrug-resistant (MDR) infections, estimated at 450,000 globally during 2012, are on the rise, and about 3 million people infected with TB are left undiagnosed and untreated. The WHO also recommended addressing the threat of MDR-TB with urgency as one of the five priority actions. [WHO, UN News Center]]
Authors of a new paper published in the American Journal of Public Health argue that malaria elimination in Alabama in the 1930s was largely due to improved local public health infrastructures and targeted public health interventions. [Infection Control Today]
A new report by the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future writes that despite enormous threats posed by antibiotic use in food animals to human health, the US Congress and the Obama administration have failed to enact necessary regulations. [Washington Post]
The Leapfrog Group s Hospital Safety Score, which provides grade rankings to over 2,500 general hospitals in the US, finds little improvements in the latest grade updates. Instead, the group s new estimates published in the Journal of Patient Safety show that about 210,000 to 440,000 people die annually due to preventable medical errors. [News Medical]
A new infographic summarizes important findings from the CDC s recent report on the threat of antimicrobial resistance in the US. A paper in JAMA also summarizes the CDC report. [OnlineMPHDegree.Net, JAMA]
Espen Rasmussen discusses the roles both positive and negative of social media in global health. [SciDevNet]
Research in The Lancet has shown that honey often touted as an effective antibacterial treatment has no advantage over traditional antibiotics in treating wound infections. [The Lancet, The Conversation]
