Search Tag: antibiotic resistance
Why is the Pharmaceutical Industry Not Developing New Antibiotics?
2021 26 Nov
An overview of antibiotic resistance, causative factors, reasons for the lack of research and drug development in this area and potential solutions. Key Points Antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest threats to global health. The primary culprit of fuelling antibiotic resistance is the misuse and overuse of existing antibiotic... Read more
Timing of Antibiotic Therapy in the Intensive Care Unit
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
#ISICEM21: Advances in Resistant Gram-Negative Pneumonia
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
COVID-19 and Antimicrobial Stewardship
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
Biomarker-Guided Antibiotic Stewardship in Suspected Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia
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
Antibiotic timing and administration in the ED
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
Results of the ABATE infection trial
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
4th Dubai International Conference on Infectious Diseases and Vaccination (DICID)
2019 25 Apr
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The Accelerate Pheno™ system in clinical practice: fast and accurate turnaround for critical results
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
Should “empiric” antibiotic therapy be considered old-fashioned?
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