Antibiotic Resistance News and Research

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New device uses shortwave infrared light to improve diagnosis of ear infections

A new device developed by researchers at MIT and a physician at Connecticut Children's Medical Center could greatly improve doctors' ability to accurately diagnose ear infections.

26 Aug 2016

Portable Lab-on-a-Stick test helps in rapid detection of bacterial resistance to antibiotics

A portable power-free test for the rapid detection of bacterial resistance to antibiotics has been developed by academics at Loughborough University and the University of Reading.

23 Aug 2016

Scientists discover novel African types of Salmonella linked to blood poisoning and death

The first global-scale genetic study of Salmonella Enteritidis bacteria, which is a major cause of blood poisoning and death in Africa and food poisoning in the Western World, has discovered that there are in fact three separate types.

22 Aug 2016

New book from Cold Spring Harbor examines major antibiotics and mechanisms of resistance

One of the greatest medical accomplishments of the past century was the introduction of antibiotics into the clinic.

18 Aug 2016

Hygiene hypothesis: a misleading misnomer? An interview with Professor Sally Bloomfield

Professor Strachan first proposed the hygiene hypothesis back in 1989. Reviewing the evidence, he suggested that one of the causes of the recent rapid rise in allergic diseases in children was lack of exposure to childhood infections

11 Aug 2016

World's largest public-private partnership focuses on tackling antibiotic resistance

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Wellcome Trust of London, the AMR Centre of Alderley Park, Cheshire in the United Kingdom and Boston University School of Law today announced the establishment of one of the world's largest public-private partnerships focused on tackling antibiotic resistance, an emerging modern threat to public health worldwide.

29 Jul 2016

UNMC researcher aims to find workable solution for tackling antibiotic resistance

Sam Sanderson, Ph.D., a research associate professor in the UNMC College of Pharmacy, recently secured an R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health to find a workable solution to the problem of antibiotic resistance.

28 Jul 2016

Researchers find dangerous antibiotic-resistant bacteria in wastewater from broken sewer lines

University of South Florida researchers investigating the aftermath of a September, 2014 sewer line break in St. Petersburg, Florida, have found dangerous antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the untreated wastewater that gushed into neighborhoods and into Boca Ciega Bay at a rate of 250 to 500 gallons per minute.

20 Jul 2016

Growing concerns about drug resistance highlight importance of preventing gonorrhea infection

A recent analysis by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicates that the bacteria responsible for gonorrhoea may be developing resistance to one of the current treatments for the infection — the antibiotic azithromycin.

18 Jul 2016

Experts call on UN to implement four-part global action plan to increase access to effective antibiotics

Today some of the world's foremost experts on antibiotic resistance called on the United Nations General Assembly to decisively act to reduce the growing number of deaths due to limited access to effective antibiotics.

18 Jul 2016

IDSA/ATS recommends shorter courses of antibiotics for patients with hospital-acquired, ventilator-associated pneumonia

Hospital-acquired pneumonia and ventilator-associated pneumonia– which account for 20 to 25 percent of hospital-acquired infections – should be treated with shorter courses of antibiotics than they typically are, according to new guidelines released by the Infectious Diseases Society of America and American Thoracic Society and published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.

14 Jul 2016

Italian researchers identify new variant of emerging antibiotic resistance mechanism

A team of Italian investigators has discovered a new variant of an emerging antibiotic resistance mechanism. The new variant, dubbed mcr-1.2, confers resistance to colistin, a last-resort antibiotic against multidrug-resistant Gram-negative pathogens.

13 Jul 2016

Researchers identify new mechanism by which bacteria outsmarts immune system

Bacteria are rapidly developing resistance mechanisms to combat even the most effective antibiotics.

13 Jul 2016

ANTRUK awards first research contract to Evotec to find ways of breaking antibiotic resistance

Thanks to the generosity of its donors, Antibiotic Research UK – the world’s first charity established to fight antibiotic resistance, provide patient support and raise awareness of the issue of antibiotic resistance – has awarded its first research contract to Evotec, a leading organisation in drug discovery and development.

11 Jul 2016

Microbes detected in Boston subway system have low pathogenic potential, study shows

Boston's subway system, known as the T, might be just as bacteria-laden as you'd expect but organisms found there are largely from normal human skin and incapable of causing disease, according to a study published June 28 in mSystems, an open access journal of the American Society for Microbiology.

8 Jul 2016

NPS MedicineWise urges child care centres to increase awareness around misuse of antibiotics in young children

NPS MedicineWise has written to child care centres across Australia to enlist their support in responding to the growing problem of antibiotic resistance. Child care staff are well placed to help with education and increase awareness around the misuse of antibiotics in young children.

7 Jul 2016

New research highlights need to abandon modern hygiene hypothesis

The July issue of Perspectives in Public Health (published by the Royal Society of Public Health) takes an objective view of ongoing research showing that the hygiene hypothesis – the idea that allergies are the price we are paying for our “modern obsession with cleanliness” – is a misleading misnomer.

6 Jul 2016

Studies shed more light on relation between bacteria, immune system and antibiotics

Antibiotics and the immune system are the two forces that cope with bacterial infections. Now, two studies from Isabel Gordo's laboratory, at Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, show for the first time that resistance to antibiotics and to the immune system is interconnected in bacteria.

4 Jul 2016

Microbial community less stable and less diverse in antibiotic-treated children

The DIABIMMUNE project followed the development of 39 Finnish infants from birth to the age of three. Half of the children received 9-15 antibiotic treatments during the research period, and the other half did not receive any such treatments.

22 Jun 2016

Molecular diagnostics of the future: an interview with Elaine Warburton, OBE

Firstly, a sample must be transported from the clinic to the laboratory. Simple tests may be undertaken in a small lab within the hospital or clinic, whilst complex testing such as drug susceptibility testing is often done in a large centralized laboratory many miles from the clinic

20 Jun 2016