Antibiotics
"Antibiotic resistance is rising for many different pathogens that are threats to health. If we don’t act now, our medicine cabinet will be empty, and we won’t have the antibiotics we need to save lives."
- Tom Frieden, CDC Director, USA, 2013
Antibiotic resistance is increasingly becoming a global health threat associated with increased morbidity, mortality, prolonged hospitalization and healthcare costs. It has been estimated that 300 million people will die prematurely from drug resistance over the next 35 years if antibiotic resistance is not overcome. The above may additionally translate into a $USD 60 to 100 trillion worth of economic output lost by 2050. Over the past five years, a number of antimicrobial agents that are effective against Gram-positive multidrug-resistant organisms have been developed and approved as a result of clinical trials. However, newer agents are in demand whether by means of new entities or re-purposing to supplement and replace agents.
This section serves to furnish insights and inspiration from ongoing developments and discoveriesthat despite the grim outlook is taking place after all - and hopefully can spur new findings in the field.
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Prevalence of Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus among Isolates from Wounds in Surgical Wards at Kabale Regional Referral Hospital, South Western Uganda
Background: Methicillin resistant S. aureus (MRSA) is a multidrug resistant organism that threatens the continued effectiveness of antibiotics worldwide and causes a threat almost exclusively in hospitals and long-term care settings. The samples were cultured on Mannitol salt agar at 37°C for 17- 24 hours and the colonies were tested and confirmed as S. aureus using API staph testing kit. MRSA susceptibility was performed by the Kirby Bauer disc diffusion on MHA for the following antibiotics: Ceftriaxone, Ciprofloxacin, Erythromycin, Imipenem, Trimethoprim – sulfamethoxazole, Levofloxacin and Gentamycin. Majority (54%) of the MRSA isolates were highly sensitive to Gentamycin and Levofloxacin but highly resistant to Ceftriaxone (100%), Imipenem (100%), Trimethoprim – sulfamethoxazole (85%), and Erythromycin (67%).
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Test shows when safe to stop antibiotics in sepsis patients
The analysis was undertaken by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) funded Applied Research Collaboration Greater Manchester (ARC-GM), the NIHR Manchester HealthTech Research Centre in Emergency and Acute Care and the NIHR Manchester Biomedical Research Centre (BRC), in collaboration with The Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust and Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust. Study co-author, Professor Paul Dark, is Vice Dean for health and care partnerships at the University of Manchester and Professor of critical care medicine at the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust. This will be better for patients, who will experience more limited side effects, and better for health care systems by providing significant cost savings." He added: "Our recent cost effectiveness study that was part of the ADAPT-Sepsis trial also suggests that implementing daily procalcitonin measurement into routine NHS sepsis care would likely be cost effective. "This approach supports the UK's 10-Year Health Plan to tackle antibiotic resistance and could inform future NICE sepsis guidelines, paving the way for routine use of these blood tests in sepsis care."
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Democratizing Access to Real-World Data Through AI
Mastering these coding systems is as demanding as learning a new language, requiring continuous effort to stay current as codes evolve and expand. Much like a translation app on your phone, AI can interpret queries written in familiar, everyday language and seamlessly convert them into the precise coding and syntax required to interrogate RWD. In this webinar, experts from TriNetX will explore what this approach involves and how it creates a more universal language for RWD. You'll learn: What plain-language querying is and how it works How AI is helping make RWD more accessible and interpretable Potential use cases for clinical trials
