Antibiotic Resistance News and Research

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FDA claims withdrawal process for animal antibiotics as too hard

On Monday, in a disappointing move, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) denied two citizen petitions that asked the Agency to ban certain uses of antibiotics in food animals.

10 Nov 2011

Supplemental dose of pneumonia vaccine recommended for age-eligible patients

In a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, healthcare providers are being urged to administer a supplemental dose of the 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine to age-eligible patients as they come in for visits.

5 Nov 2011

Rothman researchers to develop gold standard definition for periprosthetic joint infection

A rise in periprosthetic joint infection (PJI) rates has the orthopedic community moving to develop it's first-ever agreed upon definition and diagnostic criteria to help better treat patients.

5 Nov 2011

Bacteria rapidly exchange genetic information related to human disease and antibiotic resistance

Much as people can exchange information instantaneously in the digital age, bacteria associated with humans and their livestock appear to freely and rapidly exchange genetic material related to human disease and antibiotic resistance through a mechanism called horizontal gene transfer (HGT).

2 Nov 2011

Viewpoints: Judd Gregg on revamping entitlements and taxes; John Breaux on slashing Medicare fraud; Medicaid limits on hospital stays

Consider this. As of this year, every other household in America will have at least one person in it who is receiving an entitlement benefit, according to the Census Bureau. As of this year, fewer than half of the Americans who have earned income will pay income taxes on that income.

1 Nov 2011

Researcher's compound disables bacteria instead of killing them

After 70 years, antibiotics are still the primary treatment for halting the spread of bacterial infections. But the prevalence of antibiotic resistance is now outpacing the rate of new drug discovery and approval. A microbiologist at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) has discovered a different approach: Instead of killing the bacteria, why not disarm them, quashing disease without the worry of antibiotic resistance?

29 Oct 2011

New discoveries on drug resistance in Leishmania

Two remarkable discoveries were today revealed by researchers into genome analysis of Leishmania parasites. These results uncovered a surprising level of variation at the genome structure level.

28 Oct 2011

New method employs Doppler ultrasound sensor to diagnose sinusitis

A new method of diagnosing sinusitis is presented in a new thesis from Lund University. The results offer the potential to reduce the use of antibiotics and the costs of the disease to society.

7 Oct 2011

Roads may play a major role in the spread or containment of antibiotic resistant bacteria

Antibiotic resistant E. coli was much more prevalent in villages situated along roads than in rural villages located away from roads, which suggests that roads play a major role in the spread or containment of antibiotic resistant bacteria, commonly called superbugs, a new study finds.

30 Sep 2011

Vaxent, PREVENT sign license agreement to develop and commercialize Strep-A vaccine

An international collaboration between Vaxent, a Memphis-based early stage vaccine development company in the Memphis Bioworks Foundation Incubator, and The Pan-Provincial Vaccine Enterprise Inc. (PREVENT), a Centre of Excellence for Commercialization and Research (CECR) in Saskatchewan, has put a vaccine for group A streptococcus (Strep-A) back on the path for potential commercialization.

26 Sep 2011

Two TGen students receive SRP grants for antibiotic resistance and Alzheimer's research

Two Arizona university graduate students working at the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) have each received $50,000 grants from the Salt River Project.

23 Sep 2011

'ResistanceMap' tracks antibiotic resistance online

"Extending the Cure," a research project of the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy that looks at antibiotic resistance, on Wednesday launched a map "designed to be a tool for public health, researchers, doctors, the media and the public to track resistant pathogens, which is a growing problem around the world," the Washington Post's "The Checkup" blog reports.

22 Sep 2011

NIH to honor IGB faculty member with innovator award

Douglas A. Mitchell, IGB faculty member in the Mining Microbial Genomes for Novel Antibiotics research theme and assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry, is a recipient of the 2011 National Institutes of Health Director's New Innovator Award. The award recognizes bold ideas from some of the nation's most promising new scientists.

22 Sep 2011

New paper describes unique process that is central to induction of MSRA antibiotic resistance

A new paper by a team of University of Notre Dame researchers that included Shahriar Mobashery, Jeffrey Peng, Brian Baker and their researchers Oleg Borbulevych, Malika Kumararasiri, Brian Wilson, Leticia Llarrull, Mijoon Lee, Dusan Hesek and Qicun Shi describes a unique process that is central to induction of antibiotic resistance in the problematic bacterium methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

16 Sep 2011

Longer looks: Fighting antibiotic resistance; a health care arms race video; the HVP debate

We won't stop the rising tide of infections until we develop a new business model to fight them. We are not quite on the brink of some dystopian Victorian future. But every year, the prognosis for infectious-disease patients gets a bit grimmer. … And more-powerful drugs tend to cost more than the old drugs. … Even in the rich world, death from infection still looms; MRSA alone kills thousands every year. And firms are not developing antibiotics as fast as they used to.

16 Sep 2011

Without action to curb antibiotic resistance, some diseases may once again become untreatable

In this Atlantic Magazine opinion piece, Megan McArdle, senior editor at the Atlantic, echoes a warning by the FDA issued in 2001 which stated, "Unless antibiotic resistance problems are detected as they emerge, and actions are taken to contain them, the world could be faced with previously treatable diseases that have again become untreatable, as in the days before antibiotics were developed."

15 Sep 2011

Viewpoints: Burgess, Clancy and others on hospital infections; state health exchanges causing controversy

Hospital CEOs can do more than just prevent an outbreak of influenza in their facility this flu season: They can and must take action against antibiotic resistance, an urgent public health problem that affects us all. What does the flu have to do with antibiotic resistance and what can a hospital CEO do about it? Plenty, as it turns out.

13 Sep 2011

Study identifies genes never before linked to antibiotic resistance in enterococci

An analysis of the genome of a superbug has yielded crucial, novel information that could aid efforts to counteract the bacterium's resistance to an antibiotic of last resort.

9 Sep 2011

Mass. Eye and Ear receives NIAID grant to coordinate Harvard-wide Project on Antibiotic Resistance

The Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary has received an $11 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, the largest National Institutes of Health grant in this hospital's187-year history, to coordinate the Harvard-wide Project on Antibiotic Resistance.

8 Sep 2011

Superbug structure deciphered

NDM-1, the enzyme responsible for antibiotic-resistant "superbugs," has had its structure deciphered by British scientists. NDM-1 (New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase 1) emerged in India three years ago. It has the ability to break up, or hydrolyze, even carbapenems, the strongest class of antibiotics, making them ineffective, and has been found in a wide variety of pathogens. Antibiotic resistance is on the rise. More than 25,000 people in the European Union die every year from bacterial infections.

6 Sep 2011