August 16, 2013
A roundup of news on drug resistance and other topics in global health.
An article on antibiotic resistance in Business Standard cites CDDEP research on the rapid increase in carbapenem sales in India. Also, in this article, CDDEP Director Ramanan Laxminarayan explains the catastrophic threat posed by antimicrobial resistance in India. [Business Standard]
A new study to be published in the European Respiratory Journal suggests that the economic burden of TB far outweighs the likely costs of investing in much-needed research to develop more effective medicines and vaccines. Estimating that TB imposes direct costs of more than 500 million and an additional 5.3 billion euros in productivity losses in Europe, the study also warns that these costs will rise as the number of drug-resistant TB infections rises. [Voice of America]
According to new research published in the journal mBio, two strains of community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) that are now endemic in humans first originated in livestock. [mBio]
A recently published study in the journal BMC Infectious Diseases describes a simple, accurate and robust test to determine patients, who have high risk of Clostridium Difficile infections. [BBC]
An article in the BBC writes that many Chinese pharmaceutical firms routinely pay bribes in order to increase sales of their products. [BBC]
A recent computer modeling study published in the American Journal of Infection Control suggests that vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) bacteria can spread rapidly from a hospital to other hospitals throughout a country. [CDC]
A paper published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases reviews current and upcoming strategies to treat urinary tract infections (UTIs). [CID]
A new study in The Lancet Infectious Diseases finds that preventive antibiotic therapy for people with HIV lowers this group’s chances of developing TB or dying. [Eureka Alert]
Judy Stone, an infectious disease specialist, writes her perspectives on combating antibiotic resistance in an article published in Scientific American. [Scientific American]
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