Antibiotics Expert

A recent article in the News-Leader documented the saga of a young wrestler who developed a serious infection with a resistant Staphylococcal Aureus bacterium (MRSA). The article mentioned the usual advice about careful hand washing and good hygiene, and briefly included advice from an infectious disease specialist about not using unnecessary antibiotics and finishing those you have been prescribed. The statement then was made that there was hope there would soon be new and stronger antibiotics to combat these resistant organisms. Read the rest of this entry »

According to experts, up to 70% of the antibiotics in this country are going to livestock. It has raised concerns that widespread use of antibiotics on U.S. farms is making the drugs less effective for treating humans. One local school district is serving anti-biotic free meat.

Pizza is the top pick this Tuesday at Ford Elementary in Laurens School District 55; but chicken nuggets fly off the counter too. In this Upstate school district, they are aware of the growing waistlines of young Americans, and they are making an effort to trim fat where they can. According to Wanda Knight, Director of Child Nutrition Services for the District, “I don’t know that the parents really understand what goes into the school meals, with whole wheat products, whole grain products, reduced fat cheeses…“ Laurens 55 is also one a handful of the districts in the State to serve Coleman’s hot dogs, an antibiotic-free meat. That means the animals are vegetarian fed and not given anti-biotics, hormones or preservatives. Knight says, “We thought it was a healthier choice for the children, and we like to offer that as much as we can.”
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The first symposium of the Annual Conference on Microbial Resistance focused on the economic and public policy aspects of antibiotic resistance and antibiotic development. Moderator Susan Foster, PhD, of the Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics (Boston, MA) presented first, then facilitated a Q&A session with other presenters Ramanan Laxminarayan, PhD, of Resources for the Future (Washington, DC) and Kevin Outterson, JD, LLM, of Boston University School of Law (Boston, MA).

Foster’s presentation focused on the Economic Consequences of Antibiotic Resistance. She touched on the direct and indirect costs of drug resistance, including poorer patient health, burden to families, the need to find replacement drugs when current ones fail, and other topics.
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Overuse of antibiotics could raise intestinal disorders as they kill useful bacteria from the body, says a study that found such infection in 16 states of the US. The infection – C. difficile – often strikes older hospital patients treated with antibiotics, reported news portal NorthJersey.com.

C. difficile causes severe diarrhea and other potentially life-threatening complications. But scientists say it has also begun spreading among people of all ages even who have not been hospitalised or used antibiotics. “The widespread use of antibiotics, particularly their inappropriate use, has contributed to the increased incidence of C. difficile,” the researchers said. “It’s important that people do not take them unnecessarily or demand them from doctors.”
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A pattern of escalating antimicrobial resistance in the United States and other countries highlights the need to improve education about judicious antibiotic use, promote better infection control, improve systems used to determine susceptible organisms and create antibiotic regimens that will cover the broadest range of organisms, according to a speaker at the 2010 Annual Conference on Antimicrobial Resistance in Bethesda, Md.

“Combination chemotherapy will become the rule of practice as we wait for the development of new compounds and vaccines,” Ronald N. Jones, MD, of JMI Laboratories in North Liberty, Iowa, told a group of physicians at the meeting. “Maybe the future of infectious disease management is not new classes of drugs, but new classes of chemicals that attack the resistance mechanisms that are already in place.”
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