May 02, 2014
A roundup of news on drug resistance and other topics in global health.
In its first global evaluation of surveillance and information on antimicrobial resistance, the World Health Organization (WHO) called attention to increasing levels of bacterial resistance to many common drugs. The report, titled Antimicrobial resistance: global report on surveillance, 2014 revealed that antimicrobial resistance has spread to all regions of the world, making it clear that a post-antibiotic era far from being an apocalyptic fantasy, is instead a very real possibility for the 21st century. In light of these findings, CDDEP has compiled a list of resources and recent publications related to antimicrobial resistance. [WHO, CDDEP]
Proposed legislation in California is aiming to prevent the non-therapeutic use of antibiotics in food animals, setting an important example for other states to follow. As of May 2, the bill, SB-835, has passed in the Senate and is being referred to the State Assembly. This CDDEP blog post and related graphic explore the significance of the proposed law. [CDDEP, California Legislative Information]
Bill Gates discusses the world s most deadly creature the mosquito on the Gates Notes blog. [Gates Notes]
An experimental facility in the Netherlands is growing healthier chickens at a faster rate than the industry average but without antibiotics. [Slate]
Antimicrobial sprays used in chicken farms are reported to cause serious respiratory problems among USDA inspectors and line workers. [Mother Jones]
Humans are four inches taller, on average, than they were a century ago. While human growth has often been attributed to better nutrition alone, improved sanitation and hygiene are also at play. [The Conversation]
The CDC on Friday confirmed the first case of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) in the United States. [ABC]
Seasonal malaria chemoprevention, a new malaria prevention method that entails administering regular doses of malaria medicine to children during mosquito-heavy rainy seasons, is showing promise in West Africa. [New York Times]
Many hospitals are unaware of how vulnerable their equipment is to attacks by outsiders. Hackers can blue-screen devices and restart or reboot them to wipe out the configuration settings , which could allow them to take critical equipment down during emergencies or crash all of the testing equipment in a lab and reset the configuration to factory settings. [Wired]
According to a Commonwealth Fund ranking, Minnesota has the best healthcare system in the United States, while Mississippi has the worst. An editorial in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggested that Medicaid expansion could go a long way toward improving the worst-performing state healthcare systems. [JAMA]
Image via LollyKnit/Flickr.
