Search Tag: antibiotic resistance
2022 16 Nov
Moderator Jean-Louis Vincent Editor-in-Chief @ ICU Management & Practice Professor Department of Intensive Care Erasme Hospital Université libre de Bruxelles Brussels, Belgium Panellists Jan De Waele Full Professor Ghent University Jordi Rello Full Professor Universitat Internacional de Catalunya...Read more
2022 14 Oct
Infections occur frequently in critically ill patients in the ICU. They may be the reason for admission and could also be due to immunosuppression associated with critical illness. Antibiotics are essential tools for treating both common and complex infections. It is recommended that antibiotics should be administered as soon as possible once an infection...Read more
2022 14 Oct
Antibiotic resistance is one of the most significant public health challenges today. Join our panellists as they discuss the problem of antibiotic resistance, its impact on patient outcomes, the importance of effective antimicrobial stewardship programmes, the role of rapid diagnostic testing, and important strategies to reduce the spread of antimicrobial...Read more
2022 11 Oct
Antibiotic overuse is a growing problem in healthcare. Antimicrobial resistance has a significant impact on global public health, and its effects are similar to that of malaria and HIV. Antimicrobial resistance caused nearly 4.95 million deaths in 2019. In addition, antimicrobial resistance has significant economic consequences on healthcare systems. ...Read more
2021 19 Oct
Severe infections are common among patients in the ICU. According to findings from the Extended Study on Prevalence of Infection in Intensive Care III (EPIC III), 54% of the study patients had at least one suspected or proven infection on the study day, and 24% of these patients had more than one suspected or proven infection. These infections...Read more
2021 03 Sep
In an interesting discussion at the 40th ISICEM International Symposium on Intensive Care & Emergency Medicine, Richard Wunderink, Professor of Medicine, Pulmonary and Critical Care Division of Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine and Medical Director, Medical ICU, Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago, discussed rising levels of...Read more
2020 19 Oct
COVID-19 is a new disease. On initial presentation, clinicians can find it difficult to differentiate between coronavirus disease and bacterial community-acquired pneumonia. COVID-19 patients often develop a hyperinflammatory phase during the disease process, which could again be difficult to distinguish from a secondary bacterial infection. That is...Read more
2019 15 Dec
Ventilator-associated pneumonia carries enormous morbidity and mortality, including prolonging hospital stay and increasing the cost of healthcare. In most cases, ventilator-associated pneumonia occurs without any specific signs or symptoms. Making an accurate diagnosis is often difficult. Unlike the past, the administration of empirical antibiotics...Read more
2019 01 May
Antibiotics are often prescribed in the emergency department (ED) to patients with suspected infection before any definitive diagnosis can be made. However, amidst increasing antibiotic resistance, their use should be limited to those at high risk of infection or further clinical deterioration. Current tools to aid clinical decision-making include...Read more
2019 14 Mar
According to results of the ABATE infection trial, daily bathing with an antiseptic soap, plus nasal ointment for patients with prior antibiotic-resistant bacteria reduced hospital-acquired infections among patients with central venous catheters and other devices. The ABATE infection trial included 340,000 patients from 53 hospitals. The study...Read more
2018 01 Jun
Our clinical experiences of using the Accelerate Pheno™ system have greatly benefited patient care, providing earlier diagnostic certainty. Two complex sepsis cases are discussed, where the impact of rapid identification, with antibiotic sensitivities, of the causative organism from blood cultures is described. At Hampshire Hospitals NHS...Read more
2018 26 Mar
The Surviving Sepsis Campaign recommends starting empiric broad-spectrum antibiotics in the initial management of patients with severe sepsis and septic shock (Rhodes et al. 2017). As a consequence, many patients receive unnecessary antibiotics, exposing them to adverse events, while others might be undertreated in spite of broad-spectrum therapy...Read more
2017 10 Oct
Previous research has shown the effectiveness of care bundles in the diagnosis and treatment of septic patients. However, a new study suggests such care protocols could lead to increased use of certain broad-spectrum antibiotics and healthcare facility-onset (HCFO) C. difficile infection (CDI) rates. The study, published in the American Journal of...Read more
2015 07 Dec
The European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases , the annual meeting of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID) is the most attended infectious disease conference worldwide. This year, more than 10,000 clinicians and scientists attended the congress to present and share the latest research...Read more
2015 24 Nov
New guidelines on the prevention and control of multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria in hospitals have been published by the Journal of Hospital Infection . These guidelines are accredited by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence in the UK. Gram-negative bacteria (MDRGNB) include common types such as E. coli that are present...Read more
2015 15 Sep
Virginia Tech researchers say a new group of antibiotics shows potential in fighting the bacteria Staphylococcus aureus (staph) and the antibiotic-resistant strains commonly known as MRSA. The discovery, published in Medicinal Chemistry Communications , shows that the new antibiotics are unlike contemporary antibiotics because they contain iridium,...Read more
2015 14 Apr
A study by researchers from D'Or Institute for Research and Education (IDOR) in Brazil has analysed the factors associated with severe pneumonia in hospitalised cancer patients and suggests that more personalised treatment protocols can reduce mortality in these patients. The findings are published online in PLoS ONE . It is widely believed that the...Read more
2015 11 Feb
A Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH)-led study has shown that a set of characteristics, including differences in gene expression, may indicate which patients recovering from severe burns are at greatest risk for repeat infections. The finding is published online in Annals of Surgery . "Our approach is the first to enable the prediction of repeat...Read more
2015 19 Jan
According to a retrospective study, an antibiotic protocol that determined antibiotic use based on risk for health care-associated infections significantly increased appropriate prescription of antibiotics in a paediatric ICU. The study has been published online in Annals of the American Thoracic Society . Researchers evaluated patients with an...Read more
2015 05 Jan
In the fight against drug-resistant bacteria, new drugs are urgently needed, but so are ways to maximise the effective lifespan of these drugs. Researchers at Duke University in the U.S. have developed open-source software that can predict a constantly-evolving infectious bacterium's counter-moves to a new drug before the drug is tested on patients....Read more
2014 11 Oct
A new study published in JAMA has determined that vancomycin, an antibiotic that came out more than 50 years ago, remains effective in treating Staphylococcus aureus bloodstream infections. The study's authors said doctors should continue to use the drug even as newer antibiotics can now be bought in the market. Staphylococcus aureus is amongst...Read more
2014 01 Oct
Prophylactic antibiotics applied areas in the mouth, throat and digestive tract were associated with low levels of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and no differences in patient survival and intensive care unit (ICU) length of stay, according to researchers from the University Medical Centre Utrecht in the Netherlands. Data show that some antibiotic regimens,...Read more
2014 27 May
With antibiotic resistance a major issue globally, research in Canada may lead to an effective alternative in tackling bacteria. The research team, led by Professor Bob Hancock, of the University of British Columbia's Department of Microbiology and Immunology, identified a small molecule that prevents bacteria from forming into biofilms, which...Read more
2013 06 Oct
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is shown in the background (in gray). This figure depicts domains and key ligands of the penicillin binding protein 2a — a key resistance enzyme. The red molecule on the right is ceftaroline, a drug recently approved by the FDA. (Credit: University of Notre Dame) University of Notre Dame researchers...Read more
2013 04 Sep
Investigators working to stem the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria have taken a major step in their efforts to develop new treatments. Researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) report they have identified a novel mechanism that a particular superbug uses to fend off a key front-line antibiotic called...Read more
2013 01 Aug
Antibiotic prescribing rates for acute respiratory tract infections could be significantly lowered using internet-based training for clinicians, new research has shown. In a study, led by the University of Southampton and published in The Lancet today (Wednesday 31 July), an internet-based training programme has shown to reduce antibiotics prescribing...Read more
2013 09 Jul
New research from Western University unravels a novel means of communication that allows bacteria such as Burkholderia cenocepacia (B. cenocepacia) to resist antibiotic treatment. B. cenocepacia is an environmental bacterium that causes devastating infections in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) or with compromised immune systems. Dr. Miguel...Read more