Infection Control Today Magazine

Antibiotic Resistance

Experts Say Antibiotic Resistance Has Potential to Undermine Healthcare, Create 'Apocalyptic Scenario'

Antibiotic resistance “has the potential to undermine modern health systems,” argue health economists Richard Smith and Joanna Coast on bmj.com today. They believe that an increase in resistant organisms coupled with a big fall in the number of new antimicrobial drugs ...More
March 11, 2013
Posted in News
New Hypothesis on Why Bacteria are Becoming Increasingly More Resistant to Antibiotics

In an article published in the journal Archives of Microbiology, a researcher from the University of Granada in Spain provides an answer to an enigma that scientists have still not been able to solve. According to his theory, bacteria that are non-resistant to antibiotics ...More
March 7, 2013
Posted in News
Scientists Report Resurrection of Ancient Antibiotic-Resistance Proteins

Scientists are reporting "laboratory resurrections" of several ancient proteins that are ancestors of the enzymes that enable today's antibiotic-resistant bacteria to shrug off huge doses of penicillins, cephalosporins and other modern drugs. The achievement, reported in ...More
February 27, 2013
Posted in News
Lack of Energy is an Enemy to Antibiotic-Resistant Microbes

Rice University researchers “cured” a strain of bacteria of its ability to resist an antibiotic in an experiment that has implications for a long-standing public health crisis. Rice environmental engineer Pedro Alvarez and his team managed to remove the ability of the ...More
February 11, 2013
Posted in News
Bugs Without Borders: The Global Challenge of MDROs

In a global economy with expansive travel networks, it is possible now for nations to quickly exchange pathogenic bacteria and viruses. These are bugs without borders, and they are becoming a public health threat that requires vigilance in surveillance, control, prevention ...More
February 8, 2013
Posted in Articles
Tracking the Evolution of Antibiotic Resistance

With the discovery of antibiotics, medicine acquired power on a scale never before possible to protect health, save lives, and reduce suffering caused by certain bacteria. But the power of antibiotics is now under siege because some virulent infections no longer respond to ...More
February 1, 2013
Posted in News
Parental Misconceptions About Antibiotics Linked to Poor Health Literacy Levels in Latino Population

In the first study of its kind, researchers at the Columbia University School of Nursing have established that poor health literacy among Latino parents is associated with a poor understanding of the proper use antibiotics, particularly for upper respiratory infections ...More
February 1, 2013
Posted in News
New Tool for Mining Bacterial Genome for Novel Drug Development

Vanderbilt biochemists have discovered that the process bacteria undergo when they become drug resistant can act as a powerful tool for drug discovery. Their findings – reported this week in the Online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences – ...More
January 29, 2013
Posted in News
New Antibiotic Resistance Concern: Fish-to-Human Transmission

The $15 billion ornamental fish industry faces a global problem with antibiotic resistance, a new study concludes, raising concern that treatments for fish diseases may not work when needed – and creating yet another mechanism for exposing humans to antibiotic-resistant ...More
January 15, 2013
Posted in News
Patient Expectations of Acute Bronchitis Not Consistent With the Best Evidence

New research from the University of Georgia exposes a large discrepancy in the length of time patients expect an acute cough illness, also called acute bronchitis, to last and the reality of the illness. This mismatch may be a factor in the over-prescription of antibiotics. ...More
January 15, 2013
Posted in News