Publications e-pharmalink e-pharmalink December 2008
| e-pharmalink December 2008 |
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Ecumenical Pharmaceutical Network (EPN) is an independent, non-profit Christian organization whose mission is to increase access to medicines and health services through facilitating the development of compassionate, just, and sustainable quality pharmaceutical care through the church health care system. e-pharmalink newsletter aims at equipping pharmacists and other health professionals with information about international trends relevant to their work and opportunities that could support them in their efforts to provide effective and efficient services. It is a summary of news reported by a wide range of publications or organizations and includes web links to the original sources. Anyone can receive this e-mail. This edition focuses on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and infectious diseases For thought …..NewsResistance to antiretrovirals among children in the Central African Republic A total of 26 children had resistance tests. Only 23% had HIV that was fully sensitive to anti-HIV drugs, the remaining 77% having HIV that was resistant to at least one anti-HIV drug. Overall, five (19%) had resistance to one drug in their treatment, 4 (54%) to two drugs and one (4%) to all three drugs. South African resistance survey confirms that HIV clade C is more likely to develop multi-drug resistance mutation Wales losing fight against infections Treating food animals with antibiotics could lead to serious health consequences for human beings. If people are getting a dose of antibiotics every time they have a hamburger or a piece of chicken -- or a turkey drumstick -- this exposure could possibly be harmful. We all have benevolent bacteria in our bodies, and the antibiotics we eat could kill those good bacteria. Also, some people are sensitive to antibiotics, with reactions ranging from diarrhea to itching to seizures, and they could have these reactions to the food they eat. Six bad bugs increasingly escaping effects of antibiotics Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella species, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Enterobacter species - are among the biggest threats infectious diseases physicians face today," said Helen Boucher, MD, of Tufts Medical Center in Boston, lead author of the new report, published in the January 1 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases and now available online. "We desperately need new drugs to fight them. But we also need cooperation among industry, academia, and government to create a sustainable R&D infrastructure that will fill the pipeline to meet today's needs and keep it filled with drugs that tackle tomorrow's infectious diseases threats." MRSA's threat continues The report also revealed MRSA was responsible for an estimated 94,000 life-threatening infections and 18,650 deaths in 2005. That same year, roughly 16,000 people in U.S. died from AIDS, cite CDC figures. The national estimate is more than double the invasive MRSA prevalence reported by CDC researchers 5 years earlier. MRSA - first reported in the early 1960s - is now regarded as a major hospital-acquired pathogen worldwide. Nearly 35 percent of U.S. hospital strains of are resistant to methicillin or other penicillin antibiotics, and in recent years the emergence of vancomycin-resistant S. aureus (VRSA) has caused additional concern. Drug DevelopmentTwo-phase resistance to emergence of microbial resistance: the example of insects A clearer understanding of these actors in insect immunity may make it possible to design treatments that prevent the development of drug resistance. This has been shown in the results of a study carried out by the Equipe Ecologie Evolutive in the Laboratoire Biogéosciences (CNRS/Université de Bourgogne in Dijon), in collaboration with a British research group. New antibiotic against serious infections Ceftobiprole is the first, broad-spectrum, anti-MRSA cephalosporin antibiotic with activity against a range of difficult-to-treat Gram-positive and Gram-negative hospital- and community-acquired infections including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. In clinical trials, ceftobiprole has demonstrated high cure rates in patients with complicated skin infections, including those with deep wound and diabetic foot infections, and in infections caused by the potentially deadly MRSA. Novel antibiotic class also active against malaria parasite Dr. Greenbaum reported that Bacterial Amphiphilic Antibiotic Compounds (BAACs), discovered at U. Penn and developed by Radnor, Penn.-based biopharmaceutical company PolyMedix, irreversibly kill P.falciparum while sparing human red blood cells. Plasmodium species are responsible for the nearly 500 million cases of malaria worldwide and as many as two million deaths, most of them in children. As with anti-microbial agents, first-line malaria agents are losing effectiveness due to development of resistance to drugs by the target organisms. Position PapersSHEA and IDSA joint committee on the prevention of antimicrobial resistance in hospitals. Antimicrobial use in long term-care facilities. |