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12.09.2022 | After dozens of children at local hospital test positive for bacteria, tap water found to be the source
BOSTON.COM | Franciscan Children’s hospital is restricting the use of tap water after discovering another occurrence of a potentially harmful bacteria that it first detected in 2019.
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12.08.2022 | GPs and pharmacies ‘struggling to obtain antibiotics to treat strep A’
GUARDIAN | GPs and pharmacists say they are struggling to get hold of antibiotics for infections including strep A, as the government continues to insist there are no shortages.
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12.03.2022 | Six children die with Strep A bacterial infection
BBC | Six children have died with an invasive condition caused by Strep A – including five under 10-year-olds in England since September – the UK Health Security Agency has said.
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11.30.2022 | ‘Silent pandemic’: Antimicrobial resistance a growing threat to Canadians, experts say
GLOBAL NEWS | Rachel Sears was only 17 years old when a simple blemish on her face became a terrifying, painful ‘superbug’ overnight.
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11.25.2022 | Ashford bacteria outbreak: Child recovering after Strep A kills one
BBC | A child taken to hospital after being infected in a bacteria outbreak at a Surrey primary school is showing signs of recovery, parents have been told.
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11.22.2022 | Five bacteria types claimed 6.8 lakh lives in India in 2019: Lancet study
THE HINDU | Common bacterial infections were the second-leading cause of death in 2019, and were linked to one in eight deaths globally.
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11.22.2022 | Battling superbugs with limited ammo
ONE HEALTH TRUST | In this episode of One World, One Health, Dr. Loice Ombajo, Infectious Disease Specialist and Senior lecturer at the University of Nairobi, tells host Maggie Fox about what she and her colleagues are doing to fight these threats.
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11.11.2022 | Pandemic holds back fight against antibiotic resistance
FT | Pandemic holds back fight against antibiotic resistance
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11.06.2022 | The death of a wonder drug
TELEGRAPH | Once a bug becomes impervious to many – or even all – antibiotics, then all of us are in very serious trouble
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11.03.2022 | GSK sees commercial opportunity in antimicrobial resistance
BIOCENTURY | Pharma stops trials of antibiotic gepotidacin early for efficacy as it deepens commitment to fighting AMR
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11.03.2022 | Trials for novel UTI antibiotic stopped early because of success
CIDRAP | British pharmaceutical company GSK announced today that it has stopped two clinical trials for an investigational antibiotic for uncomplicated urinary tract infections (uUTIs) early after the drug met its goals.
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11.03.2022 | The gruesome WWI treatment that’s making a comeback on the NHS
TELEGRAPH | Data show the use of larval therapy to treat hard-to-heal wounds has been rising steadily, despite the ‘yuck factor’
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11.03.2022 | New antibiotic appears to be effective against urinary tract infections, drug company says
CNN | The first new type of antibiotic developed in more than 20 years to treat urinary tract infections (UTIs) appears to be so effective that the pharmaceutical company stopped testing and will soon submit its data to the US Food and Drug Administration for approval.
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10.31.2022 | Common kids’ antibiotic amoxicillin is in short supply in US, FDA says
BLOOMBERG | Amoxicillin, an antibiotic commonly used to treat conditions like ear infections and strep throat in children, is in shortage in the US, the Food and Drug Administration said.
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10.28.2022 | Pandemic worsens resistance to antibiotics in India
DW | Resistance to antibiotic drugs was already a problem in India before the pandemic. Doctors say it’s gotten a lot worse.
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10.22.2022 | First ‘superbug’ case cluster in kids identified at Las Vegas hospital
LAS VEGAS JOURNAL REVIEW | The first U.S. cluster of pediatric cases of a potentially lethal fungus was identified at a Las Vegas hospital in May as outbreaks swept across Southern Nevada medical facilities, according to records obtained by the Review-Journal.
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10.21.2022 | In a musical about penicillin, superbugs take center stage
NY TIMES | “The Mold That Changed the World” focuses on the physician who discovered penicillin. And it offers a message: Don’t take antibiotics unless you really need them.
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10.20.2022 | A 4-year antimicrobial stewardship program successfully reduces antibiotic resistance
CONTAGION LIVE | Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) poses a significant and growing threat to public health. The main driver of these pathogens becoming increasingly difficult to treat is an over-prescription of antibiotics.
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10.20.2022 | The drug-resistance crisis is becoming an increasing burden to healthcare systems – could rapid phenotypic testing help?
THE PATHOLOGIST | When COVID-19 turned the world upside down, we were already on a troubling trajectory with drug-resistant superbugs – but the pandemic spurred doctors around the world to prescribe more broad-spectrum antibiotics to prevent and treat secondary bacterial infections, accelerating the potential for resistance.
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10.18.2022 | The war in Ukraine is fueling antimicrobial resistance
DEVEX | The war in Ukraine is increasing the spread of antimicrobial resistance, said Dr. Laura Jung, a clinician and researcher on antibiotic resistance at the University of Leipzig Medical Center in Germany, during the World Health Summit on Tuesday.
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10.17.2022 | Anti-microbial resistance could kill us before the climate crisis does
THE NEW STATESMAN | The former chief medical officer for England warns about the threat AMR poses to humanity – and why we need to act now.
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10.14.2022 | The burden of bacterial antimicrobial resistance in the WHO European region in 2019: a cross-country systematic analysis
AMR Insights | Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) represents one of the most crucial threats to public health and modern health care. Previous studies have identified challenges with estimating the magnitude of the problem and its downstream effect on human health and mortality. To our knowledge, this study presents the most comprehensive set of regional and country-level estimates of AMR burden in the WHO European region to date.
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10.10.2022 | India facing a pandemic of antibiotics-resistant superbugs
BBC | At the 1,000-bed not-for-profit Kasturba Hospital in the western Indian state of Maharashtra, doctors are grappling with a rash of antibiotic-resistant “superbug infections”.
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09.27.2022 | Fighting superbugs with shots: Vaccines against antimicrobial-resistant microbes
ONE WORLD ONE HEALTH | Drug-resistant superbugs are killers. They directly kill more than a million people a year, the World Health Organization says, and contribute to five million deaths a year.
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09.27.2022 | The race to fight the ‘superbugs’ – the next global health threat
iNEWS | Increasing drug resistance could leave us powerless to fight infections we now consider routine, and scientists are urgently searching for answers
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09.27.2022 | Neonatal sepsis: the new threat posed by superbugs
BBC | Has the over-use of antibiotics created a deadly risk to newborns? Kamala Thiagarajan investigates the hidden health crisis devastating families around the world – and the solutions that could stop it.
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09.26.2022 | Viruses to fight superbugs? Scientists are working on it
WIRED | Phages may help fight drug-resistant infections—but finding the right ones for each bacterium is no mean feat.
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09.19.2022 | Fourth WHO global evidence review on health and migration stresses that equitable access to and appropriate use of antibiotics for refugees and migrants is essential to tackling antimicrobial resistance
WHO | Over 1.27 million people worldwide die of bacterial Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) yearly. Decades of misuse and overuse of antibiotics and other antimicrobials have made these drugs less effective in treating common infectious diseases, accelerating the emergence and spread of AMR.
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09.16.2022 | Superbug ‘pandemic’ stalks India as antibiotic resistance jumps 10pc in a year
THE TELEGRAPH | Report warns that, if immediate measures are not taken, AMR has the potential to take the form of a pandemic in the near future
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09.15.2022 | Medics ‘flying blind’ in fight against superbugs due to patchy diagnostics
THE TELEGRAPH | First comprehensive survey of Africa’s resources to tackle Anti-microbial resistance finds serious lack of laboratory capacity and testing.
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09.14.2022 | Tufts scientists use artificial intelligence to improve tuberculosis treatments
TUFTS NOW | Researchers in the Aldridge Lab have devised rules for a faster, more effective way to identify potential new drug cocktails against this infectious disease.
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09.13.2022 | Using AI to find new antibiotics still a work in progress
NIH DIRECTOR’S CUT | Each year, more than 2.8 million people in the United States develop bacterial infections that don’t respond to treatment and sometimes turn life-threatening.
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09.13.2022 | Alarm as 6 infants at KNH die of drug-resistant pneumonia
NATION | The Health ministry has heightened public health measures at the Kenyatta National Hospital newborn unit following reports of babies infected with a life-threatening bacteria that is resistant to the available antibiotics.
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09.11.2022 | 40% infected with superbugs in ICUs die in 14 days: Study
TOI | Results of the first year-long surveillance of hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) in 120 ICUs across the country reveal a grim picture of superbugs scoring over medicines.
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09.10.2022 | Sustained rise in antimicrobial resistance in India: ICMR study
THE HINDU | A big chunk of patients in India may no longer benefit from carbapenem, a powerful antibiotic administered mainly in ICU settings to treat pneumonia and septicemia, as they have developed antimicrobial resistance to it, an ICMR study has found.
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09.09.2022 | Superbugs are a “second punch” after pandemic
AXIOS | Superbugs are strengthening their foothold: The COVID-19 pandemic spurred a 15% increase in hospital-related infections and deaths in 2020, per the CDC.
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09.07.2022 | Antibiotics play essential role in treating sepsis
PEW | Growing resistance to these drugs increases the risks to patients.
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09.06.2022 | CRISPR technology turns 10, rises to new challenges
GEN | Ever since CRISPR technology arrived, it has been refining its capabilities and tackling increasingly difficult problems—including problems of global scope.
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09.06.2022 | McMaster researchers discover bacteria-killing toxin that could lead to innovation in antibiotics
THE HAMILTON SPECTATOR | Researchers at McMaster University have discovered a bacteria-killing toxin that has the potential to open a new pathway of antibiotics.
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08.31.2022 | Phage therapy: Past, present and future
ASM | Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has made it so that, for a growing number of bacterial pathogens, the success rate of antibiotics is iffy, at best.
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08.31.2022 | Family tragedy inspires Kenmore teen to spread word about health threat
SEATTLE TIMES | In an eight-minute documentary, the 16-year-old tells the story of antibiotic resistance — or what happens when bacteria evolves to a point where it’s no longer treatable by antibiotic drugs. In short, she says, even seemingly minor infections could start to kill more and more people in coming years if new drugs aren’t developed.
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08.31.2022 | NHS patients struggling with superbugs to be offered poo transplants
THE GUARDIAN | Revolutionary treatment for C diff infections that transfers gut bacteria from healthy feces given the green light by Nice.
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08.30.2022 | Dentists improve antibiotic prescribing after antibiotic stewardship education
CONTAGION LIVE | Dentists write about 25.7 million prescriptions annually, amounting to about 10% of all outpatient antibiotic prescriptions in the United States.
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08.30.2022 | Searching for ‘Pathogen X’ that will drive the next pandemic
HEALTH POLICY WATCH | Drug-resistant bacteria, influenza, Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever – all have the potential to be the ‘pathogen X’ that could drive the next pandemic, according to scientists sharing notes at a two-day meeting convened by the World Health Organization (WHO).
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08.29.2022 | We need to change how antibiotics target bugs if we want them to keep working
THE CONVERSATION | A recently published study found that in 2019 around 5 million deaths were associated with antibiotic resistance, more than twice those due to COVID in 2020.
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08.28.2022 | Intermountain Healthcare study seeks to address antibiotic overprescription nationwide
KSL | Antibiotics can be extremely helpful for treating infections, but overuse and overprescription are quickly lowering their efficiency and requiring physicians to prescribe stronger antibiotics to treat the same conditions.
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08.28.2022 | Alien invaders? No, it’s an army of ‘friendly viruses’ leading the NHS’s war on superbugs
THE MAIL | THEY are ruthlessly efficient killers, with six spider-like ‘legs’ they use to latch on to their prey, and bulbous heads with 20 faces. When they attack in swarms, they are able to penetrate their target – making it explode from the inside out.
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08.24.2022 | Johns Hopkins doctors discover that a common infection may cause cancer
JOHNS HOPKINS | A new study suggests that Clostridioides difficile is responsible for certain colorectal cancers.
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08.17.2022 | Tackling the silent pandemic: AMR Industry Alliance sets the standard
EPR | Here AMR Industry Alliance representatives Melissa Gong Mitchell and Steve Brooks discuss how the Alliance is mobilising the life sciences sector in combatting antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
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08.16.2022 | Fighting antibiotic resistance with biology
INSIDE PRECISION MEDICINE | The next phase of phage research is here, but many challenges remain before it enters the clinic
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08.10.2022 | Drug-resistant bacteria soars in hospitals: What makes superbugs medicine’s biggest challenge
WBUR | The infections superbugs cause now kill more than a million people a year globally, and a new analysis by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows the pandemic caused them to surge in hospitals, after several years of decline.
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08.09.2022 | Phage therapy starts realizing its long-deferred potential
GEN | Decades after being slighted in favor of antibiotics, phages are attracting interest as therapeutic candidates that can overcome bacterial resistance
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08.05.2022 | Antimicrobial resistant bacteria found in newborn children from low- and middle-income countries
OXFORD | A new study coordinated by Professor Tim Walsh at the Ineos Oxford Institute for Antimicrobial Research (IOI) and Department of Biology looks at the links between the presence of bacteria resistant to antibiotics isolated from mothers and their newborn babies living across 7 LMICs in Africa and South Asia.
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08.02.2022 | Tackling antibiotic resistance with AI and quantum computing
WEF | As the world continues to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, the effects of another, ongoing, global challenge – the antibiotic resistance crisis – become ever more prominent.
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08.01.2022 | CDC study highlights community spread of superbugs
CIDRAP | New US surveillance data indicate that infections caused by multidrug-resistant bacterial pathogens are moving beyond the healthcare setting.
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07.29.2022 | New breakthrough shows antimicrobial resistance is more evolved than previously recognized
NEWS MEDICAL LIFE SCIENCES| Using a combination of computation and physical observation in the laboratory, the researchers have unraveled a sophisticated process that some commonly occurring bacteria use to save themselves from the rifamycin class of antibiotics, which occur naturally and are also manufactured to treat infectious diseases.
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07.28.2022 | Typhoid mutated to beat antibiotics. Science is learning how to beat those strains
NPR | Since then we’ve developed powerful antibiotics that could have wiped out Mary’s typhoid and that have been used to successfully treat many millions with the disease.
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07.22.2022 | Why don’t we have a vaccine for…A tale of 3 pathogens
ASM | In the more than 50 years since the rise of modern molecular biology, researchers have developed vaccines against a range of pathogens, from SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) to Streptococcus pneumoniae (the bacterium responsible for pneumococcal disease).
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07.22.2022 | Superbugs could cost you an arm or a leg: Why hospitals need more money to fight drug resistance
BHEKISISA | Common germs are outsmarting medicine much faster than South Africa’s health system can keep up with — and new research suggests there isn’t the money (or enough specialists) at state facilities to stop more bugs from becoming untreatable.
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07.21.2022 | A tool for fighting superbugs has been found deep in the desert
WIRED | Recently they’ve been hunting for something in particular. Scientists believe that organisms that live in tough environments could help combat the urgent and ever-growing threat of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, which are becoming increasingly deadly.
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07.19.2022 | Antibiotic resistance raises prospect of untreatable gonorrhoea
FINANCIAL TIMES | Just one drug remains effective for the sexually transmitted disease but soon the bacteria may be able to evade it.
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07.18.2022 | Drug-resilient bacteria threat rises with spread of world’s war zones
FT | Tom Potokar recalls patients at Shifa hospital in Gaza returning for consultations after limb surgery to remediate gun and bomb injuries. Their apparent recovery belies dangerous underlying infections — part of a growing trend as conflict spreads from the Middle East into Ukraine and beyond.
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07.15.2022 | No antibiotics worked, so this woman turned to a natural enemy of bacteria to save her husband’s life
CNN | In February 2016, infectious disease epidemiologist Steffanie Strathdee was holding her dying husband’s hand, watching him lose an exhausting fight against a deadly superbug infection.
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07.14.2022 | The pandemic fueled a superbug surge. Can medicine recover?
WIRED | As Covid swept ICUs, doctors prescribed antibiotics to ward off secondary infections. Now bacteria have evolved resistance—but hospitals are fighting back.
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07.13.2022 | Drug-resistant infections in hospitals soared during the pandemic
NYT | A new report says the havoc wrought by the coronavirus reversed gains made by health care facilities to combat deadly pathogens.
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07.13.2022 | Superbug infections spiked in pandemic’s first wave
NBC NEWS | The spread of drug-resistant bacteria and fungi in 2020 erased the progress the U.S. made against these deadly germs.
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07.13.2022 | WHO report highlights progress, challenges for vaccines against resistant bacteria
CIDRAP | The World Health Organization (WHO) today released its first-ever report on the pipeline for vaccines to combat antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
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07.12.2022 | National stewardship program tied to reduced antibiotics in ambulatory care
CIDRAP | Antibiotic prescribing at hundreds of ambulatory care clinics across the country was nearly cut in half after implementation of an antibiotic stewardship and patient safety program.
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07.12.2022 | Pandemic fueled surge in superbug infections and deaths, CDC says
WASHINGTON POST | Sicker patients, antibiotic overuse, and staff and equipment shortages led to 15 percent increase.
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07.12.2022 | U.S. deaths from antibiotic resistant ‘superbugs’ rose 15% in 2020
REUTERS | U.S. deaths from bacteria resistant to antibiotics, also known as ‘superbugs’, jumped 15% in 2020 as the drugs were widely dispensed to treat COVID-19 and fight off bacterial infections during long hospitalizations, enabling the bugs to evolve, a U.S. government report said on Tuesday.
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07.12.2022 | Urgent call for better use of existing vaccines and development of new vaccines to tackle AMR
WHO | WHO today released the first-ever report on the pipeline of the vaccines currently in development to prevent infections caused by antimicrobial-resistant (AMR) bacterial pathogens. WHO’s analysis points to the need to accelerate trials for AMR related vaccines in late-stage development and maximise the use of existing vaccines.
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07.12.2022 | ‘Eye-opening’: The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated antimicrobial resistance across the U.S.
STAT | Resistance to medicines for combating superbugs has considerably worsened during the pandemic, with deaths and infections from several serious pathogens increasing at least 15% during the first year of the crisis, according to a new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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07.12.2022 | Bacterial vaccines in clinical and preclinical development 2021
WHO | “An analysis of bacterial vaccines in preclinical and clinical development: 2021” is the first WHO analyses and report of vaccine candidates in preclinical and clinical development in 2021, in the context of antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
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07.11.2022 | Healthcare asset manager Innoviva buys another biotech at a bargain price
BIOPHARMADIVE | Hospitals and doctors are in need of new medicines to combat drug-resistant bacteria strains. Development of new anti-infective drugs has been slow to materialize, however.
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07.07.2022 | Untreatable gonorrhoea on the rise worldwide
NATURE | Non-profit group helps marshal trial of a new antibiotic in an attempt to beat back resistant infections
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07.06.2022 | Cambridge microbiome company looks beyond fecal transplants
BOSTON GLOBE | Vedanta Biosciences will use its new manufacturing facility to make bacteria-filled pills that heal the gut microbiome without the need for stool donors.
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07.06.2022 | $250B plan to end TB seeks new vaccine by 2025
DEVEX | On Wednesday, the Stop TB Partnership launched an ambitious new plan to end tuberculosis by 2030, which includes the approval of a new TB vaccine by 2025.
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07.04.2022 | Buyers United: How low- and middle-income countries can get a better deal on pharmaceuticals
INSIDE VIEW | The wider use of pooled procurement in national health systems can help low- and middle-income countries get a better deal on pharmaceuticals.
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07.03.2022 | UTI study finds high rates of resistance to common antibiotics
HEALIO | A study of nearly 150,000 patients who presented to the ED with complicated UTIs found many were resistant to commonly used oral antibiotics, according findings published in Open Forum Infectious Disease.
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06.30.2022 | UK leading race to develop new treatments to tackle drug-resistant infections, says Sajid Javid
iNEWS | Health Secretary set to announce extra funding towards a global antibiotic research fund which is set to help millions of people in low-and middle-income countries
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06.30.2022 | More promising phage news—Using bacteria-killing viruses to treat antibiotic-resistant infections
FORBES | There’s more good news from the world of phages, viruses that infect bacteria, in treating antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
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06.29.2022 | ‘Global response’ needed as typhoid evades antibiotics
SCIDEVNET | The bacteria that causes typhoid fever is becoming increasingly resistant to common antibiotics used to treat the disease, with these resistant strains spreading to hundreds of countries in the past three decades, new analysis shows.
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06.29.2022 | Vedanta opens manufacturing facility to produce lead candidate as it heads for PhIII
ENDPOINTS | The microbiome startup Vedanta, while still forging ahead with the Phase III process for its Clostridioides difficile infection candidate, has completed a manufacturing facility to produce the drug.
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06.28.2022 | What it would take to set up an African drug discovery ecosystem
THE CONVERSATION | A factor holding back African research is the lack of strong collaborative networks between African laboratories and institutions.
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06.28.2022 | COVID-19 & antibiotic resistance
CDC | The U.S. lost progress combating antimicrobial resistance in 2020 due, in large part, to effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The CDC concluded that the threat of antimicrobial-resistant infections is not only still present but has gotten worse.
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06.17.2022 | New strain of extensively drug-resistant gonorrhea appears in Austria
GIZMODO | The rise of super gonorrhea continues unabated. Scientists in Europe say they’ve recently discovered a new strain of extensively drug-resistant gonorrhea—the second such strain to be found worldwide in recent years.
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06.13.2022 | Study aims to improve tests to predict antibiotic resistance
INDEPENDENT | Researchers are hoping to better predict resistance to new antibiotics before it occurs in patients.
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06.09.2022 | Drugmakers urged to give poorer nations access to more antibiotics
THE GUARDIAN | Antifungals also needed, says study, as drug resistance has increased faster than expected, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa
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06.02.2022 | 3 reasons for unprecedented world hunger
POLITICO | “AMR is a pandemic, and in many ways, it’s also similar to the challenges which we’re trying to face in the pandemic treaty,” Lena Hallengren, Sweden’s minister of health and social affairs told Global Pulse during an interview at the Swedish embassy in Washington, D.C.
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06.01.2022 | Inappropriate antibiotic prescribing in kids cost $74M in excess in 2017, Pew study finds
FIERCE | Inappropriate prescribing of antibiotics in non-hospitalized children led to at least $74 million in excess healthcare costs in 2017, a new study found.
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05.27.2022 | Scientists develop a phone app to help fight antimicrobial resistance
THE TELEGRAPH | The app could play an important part in tackling the looming threat posed by superbugs
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05.25.2022 | Vaccines hold potential to curb antibiotic resistance
FINANCIAL TIMES | The battle against antibiotic resistance is often portrayed as a race between pharmaceutical science and bacterial evolution. Yet health experts warn that prevention is better than cure — and the potential of vaccines in combating drug-resistant infections is often overlooked.
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05.25.2022 | Diagnostic tests a crucial tool in fight against antibiotic resistance
FINANCIAL TIMES | Identifying conditions can prevent inappropriate drug use, but there are barriers to progress in poorer regions
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05.23.2022 | Anand Anandkumar at Bugworks on how India could become a powerhouse of biotech research
FORBES INDIA DAILY TECH CONVERSATION PODCAST | Anand Anandkumar, CEO of Bugworks Research, talks about the many challenges of commercializing scientific breakthroughs from India. He also talks about the opportunity for this country to become a biotech powerhouse. Bugworks is a clinical phase drug discovery company that is attempting to develop a new class of antibiotics to tackle antimicrobial resistance.
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05.19.2022 | The importance of antimicrobial stewardship in patients coinfected with COVID-19 and sepsis
CONTAGION LIVE | Patients hospitalized with severe COVID-19 are more likely to develop secondary infections, often initiated on antibiotics, that could lead to sepsis. These patients who present with sepsis, “a clinical condition of life-threatening organ dysfunction which is caused by an abnormal response to infection,” are at even greater risk of death.
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05.13.2022 | ‘Phage therapy’ successes boost fight against drug-resistant infections
GUARDIAN | Two US patients recover from intractable infections, giving hope for treatments beyond antibiotics
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05.12.2022 | Multi-pathogen testing is the future of diagnostics
THE TELEGRAPH | As we rebuild and strengthen health systems ravaged by the pandemic, let’s change the question from ‘is it Covid?’ to ‘what is this?
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05.10.2022 | Antibiotic resistance is threatening our health. Will bacterial infection send us back to the medical dark age?
ABC AUSTRALIA | Over the past 12 years, two scientists have been developing a new antibiotic that recently began phase 1 clinical trials in the US. This promising new drug, with the uninspiring name QPX9003, has placed the pair on the cusp of achieving something that hasn’t been done for decades.
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05.05.2022 | What happens to the gut microbiome after taking antibiotics?
THE SCIENTIST | Studies are finding that a single course of antibiotics alters the gut microbiomes of healthy volunteers—and that it can take months or even years to recover the original species composition.
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05.05.2022 | Diagnostic stewardship tied to fewer blood cultures, antibiotics in sick kids
CIDRAP | The JAMA Pediatrics study found that a national quality improvement collaborative to reduce the ordering of blood cultures to evaluate for bloodstream infections in children in pediatric intensive care units (PICUs) was associated both with fewer blood cultures and less broad-spectrum antibiotic use, without increasing the risk of bacterial sepsis or affecting mortality, hospital readmission, or the amount of time spent in the hospital.
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05.04.2022 | Candida auris rapidly recontaminates surfaces around patients’ beds despite cleaning and disinfection
INFECTION CONTROL TODAY | Candida auris (C auris) recontaminates environmental surfaces within a patient’s room within hours despite regular cleaning and disinfection. C auris is an emerging multidrug-resistant yeast that is often associated with substantial morbidity and mortality and is often transmitted in health care facilities. Investigators suspect environmental contamination plays an important role in transmission, but additional information is needed to inform environmental cleaning recommendations to prevent spread.
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05.02.2022 | COVID-19 may have led to a spike in antibiotic resistance
MEDICAL NEWS TODAY | Antibiotic resistance has been on the rise in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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04.30.2022 | Deadly MRSA superbug develops ‘bulletproof vest’ against highly potent antibiotic
THE TELEGRAPH | The deadly superbug MRSA has evolved a “bulletproof vest” to protect itself against a “last resort” antibiotic used to treat the infection. Daptomycin is a highly potent antibiotic reserved for only the most serious cases. Yet despite restricted use, the bacteria is still managing to create new defences to protect itself.
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04.26.2022 | Antibiotic resistance is making neonatal sepsis harder to treat
CIDRAP | A large observational study of newborn babies with sepsis shows the impact that antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is having on this vulnerable population. The study, led by the Global Antibiotic Research & Development Partnership (GARDP), looked at mortality, antibiotic treatments, and resistance among more than 3,200 newborns with suspected neonatal sepsis at hospitals in 11 countries and found that more than 11% died during the study period. The mortality rate ranged from 1% to as high as 27%.
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04.26.2022 | Entasis Therapeutics presents efficacy and safety data from landmark phase 3 ATTACK trial at ECCMID 2022 conference
GLOBENEWSWIRE | Entasis Therapeutics, a late-stage clinical biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of novel antibacterial products, today announced that top-line data from the company’s pivotal Phase 3 ATTACK trial was presented at the 32nd European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) annual conference.
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04.26.2022 | Lori Burrows on the slow-moving pandemic of antimicrobial resistance
BRIGHTER WORLD | COVID-19 continues to occupy the minds of infectious disease doctors but there’s another public health issue brewing – the growing number of drug-resistant bacteria and the lack of new antibiotics to treat them.
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04.24.2022 | Pigs can pass deadly superbugs to people, study reveals
THE GUARDIAN | Scientists have uncovered evidence that dangerous versions of superbugs can spread from pigs to humans. The discovery underlines fears that intensive use of antibiotics on farms is leading to the spread of microbes resistant to them.
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04.20.2022 | Scientists record the sound of a single bacterium’s motion
SALON | Thanks to a relatively new material, known as graphene, scientists were able to amplify frequencies of such nanomotion, which individual bacteria emit, and reproduce audio recordings. Via an ultra-thin bilayer membrane of graphene — the latest “spyware,” so-to-speak, in a decades-long arms race against antibacterial-resistant “superbugs” — they were able to rapidly distinguish living and deceased bacteria in a laboratory culture.
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04.20.2022 | Machine learning identifies antibiotic resistant bacteria that can spread between animals, humans and environment
PHYS.ORG | Experts from the University of Nottingham have developed new software which combines DNA sequencing and machine learning to help them find where, and to what extent, antibiotic resistant bacteria is being transmitted between humans, animals and the environment.
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04.19.2022 | Scientists work to uncover mechanisms behind bacterial resistance
PEW | To respond to this worsening problem of antimicrobial resistance, scholars and fellows within Pew’s biomedical research programs, along with other scientists, are searching for clues about how and why resistance occurs in bacteria that cause a range of conditions such as tuberculosis, pneumonia, and sepsis.
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04.12.2022 | Drug pollution in rivers raises risks of antibiotic resistance
FINANCIAL TIMES | Lower middle income countries in South Asia and Latin America have some of the world’s highest levels of pharmaceutical pollutants in their rivers, raising concerns over the risk of bacteria developing resistance to antibiotics.
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04.10.2022 | Drug-resistant bacteria strains are turning simple infections into killers
THE NEW DAILY | Patients who contract drug-resistant urinary tract infections can be more than three times more likely to die, according to a study by the CSIRO, Queensland University of Technology and Queensland University.
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04.06.2022 | How drug-resistant pathogens in water could spark another pandemic
UN ENVIRONMENT PROGRAMME | People around the world are unknowingly being exposed to water laced with antibiotics, which could spark the rise of drug-resistant pathogens and potentially fuel another global pandemic, warns a report from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
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04.05.2022 | CSIRO study finds antimicrobial resistance is making UTIs more deadly
CSIRO | A new study led by Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO, has found the spread of drug-resistant bacteria in the community is increasing the risk of death for common infections such as urinary tract infections (UTIs), which affect around one in two women and one in 20 men in their lifetime.
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03.19.2022 | Shortage of new antibiotics stokes fears of a ‘silent pandemic’
THE TIMES | In the 30 years that Dr Neil Todd has worked as a clinical microbiologist, he has watched as the number of antibiotics available to treat patients has grown fewer. In some cases — such as when patients arrive at hospital with sepsis — he is down to his last resort. “We’re now scraping the bottom of the barrel of the drugs we’ve got that we can use that way,” he said. “Once you get to about a 10 per cent resistance rate of an antibiotic, it becomes a bit of a gamble to give it to somebody with sepsis.”
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02.28.2022 | When antibiotics stop working
FOREIGN AFFAIRS | The world is fixated on viruses thanks to COVID-19. Public and private sectors have mobilized extraordinary levels of resources in tackling the pandemic, including developing vaccines in record time and antiviral and antiretroviral treatments for the disease. In the process, however, another major microbial threat has been neglected. In a study published in The Lancet in January, researchers at the University of Washington estimated that 1.3 million people die each year from bacterial infections that are resistant to antibiotics. Such infections kill more people annually than do HIV/AIDS, diarrhea, and malaria. Antibiotic resistance causes more deaths than any infectious disease apart from COVID-19 and tuberculosis.
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02.24.2022 | The challenge of convergent crises
PROJECT SYNDICATE | After more than two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, the global community has little interest in addressing the problem of drug-resistant pathogens. But highlighting the links between antimicrobial resistance, climate change, and violent conflict could encourage world leaders to reconsider their priorities.
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02.19.2022 | First antibiotic for super-gonorrhea enters human trials as new cases found in England
THE TELEGRAPH | The first antibiotic for super-gonorrhoea has entered human trials. An estimated 82.4 million people were newly infected with gonorrhoea in 2020, with all these cases resistant to at least one antibiotic
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02.17.2022 | How vaccine science could help tackle antimicrobial resistance
PHARMACEUTICAL TECHNOLOGY | In their ability to provide substantial protection against the worst effects of the novel coronavirus, vaccines are our ticket out of the Covid-19 pandemic – but research suggests they could also help us tackle another urgent threat to public health: antimicrobial resistance.
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02.17.2022 | The crisis of antimicrobial resistance in India
DECCAN HERALD NEWS | Most antibiotics are half a century old and the overuse of these drugs has created an acute antimicrobial resistance (AMR) crisis worldwide which is claiming a large number of lives, including in India.
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02.16.2022 | GRAM paper findings
WELLCOME | A video webinar on the GRAM paper findings that were published in The Lancet. The purpose of the Global Research on AntiMicrobial resistance (GRAM) Project is to generate accurate and timely estimates of the magnitude and trends in antimicrobial resistance (AMR) burden across the world, which can be used to inform treatment guidelines and agendas for decision-making and research, detect emerging problems and monitor trends to inform global strategies, as well as facilitate the assessment of interventions over time.
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02.15.2022 | Pharmaceuticals in rivers threaten world health – study
BBC | Pollution of the world's rivers from medicines and pharmaceutical products poses a "threat to environmental and global health", a report says. The research is among the most extensive undertaken on a global scale.
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01.28.2022 | The shadow pandemic: Antibiotic resistance is growing
THE WASHINGTON POST | Another global health crisis is unfolding in the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic. Antimicrobial resistance, the tendency of bacteria and other pathogens to evolve so they fight or evade lifesaving drugs, is a long-term threat to modern medicine.
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01.20.2022 | Millions are dying from drug-resistant infections, global report says
BBC | More than 1.2 million people died worldwide in 2019 from infections caused by bacteria resistant to antibiotics, according to the largest study of the issue to date.
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01.20.2022 | Antimicrobial resistance now a leading cause of death worldwide, study finds
THE GUARDIAN | Antimicrobial resistance poses a significant threat to humanity, health leaders have warned, as a study reveals it has become a leading cause of death worldwide and is killing about 3,500 people every day.
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01.20.2022 | Antibiotic resistance kills over 1m people a year, says study
FINANCIAL TIMES | More than 1m people around the world die each year from infections linked to microbes resistant to antibiotics, according to a study that estimates the scale of a “silent pandemic” that is now more deadly than malaria or HIV.
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