Infobites

Antimicrobial resistance now a leading cause of death worldwide, study finds

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.
More than 1.2 million – and potentially millions more – died in 2019 as a direct result of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections, according to the most comprehensive estimate to date of the global impact of antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
The stark analysis covering more than 200 countries and territories was published in the Lancet. It says AMR is killing more people than HIV/Aids or malaria. Many hundreds of thousands of deaths are occurring due to common, previously treatable infections, the study says, because bacteria that cause them have become resistant to treatment.
“These new data reveal the true scale of antimicrobial resistance worldwide, and are a clear signal that we must act now to combat the threat,” said the report’s co-author Prof Chris Murray, of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/jan/20/antimicrobial-resistance-antibiotic-resistant-bacterial-infections-deaths-lancet-study

Is bacterial acidity a key to tackle antimicrobial resistance?

Decreasing bacterial acidity could help reduce antimicrobial resistance by eliminating bacteria that can survive being treated with antibiotics. Scientists at have developed a novel method, which allows users to measure the pH of individual bacteria before, during and after treatment with antibiotics.
https://www.pharmamicroresources.com/2021/09/is-bacterial-acidity-key-to-tackle.html?m=1

Antibiotic Footprint – Interactive map

This website presents the total amount of antibiotics consume around the world
What is Antibiotic Footprint?
Antibiotic Footprint is a tool to measure and understand the total magnitude of antibiotic use. Using a holistic approach, Antibiotic Footprint seeks to measure the total amount of antibiotics used in all human activities, including direct antibiotics consumption at the community and hospital levels, and indirect consumption in agricultural production.
https://www.antibioticfootprint.net/

Deadly Contact: Nanoparticles Combat Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria

Nanoparticles are a relatively new competitor in the fight against antibiotic-resistant bacteria. A team of researchers from Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa) and ETH Zurich is developing nanoparticles that use a completely different mode of action from conventional antibiotics. While antibiotics have difficulty in penetrating human cells, nanoparticles, due to their small size and structure, can penetrate the membrane of affected cells. Because of that, they play a role in combatting intracellular pathogens, like multi-resistant staphylococci (MRSA).
https://www.genengnews.com/news/deadly-contact-nanoparticles-combat-antibiotic-resistant-bacteria/

New study shows microplastics turn into ‘hubs’ for pathogens, antibiotic-resistant bacteria

The ultra-fine plastic particles, less than 5 millimetres in length, found in everything from cosmetics, toothpaste and clothing microfibers, to our food, air and drinking water.
Now, researchers at New Jersey Institute of Technology have shown that ubiquitous microplastics can become ‘hubs’ for antibiotic-resistant bacteria and pathogens to grow once they wash down household drains and enter wastewater treatment plants—forming a slimy layer of buildup, or biofilm, on their surface that allows pathogenic microorganisms and antibiotic waste to attach and comingle.
https://phys-org.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/phys.org/news/2021-03-microplastics-hubs-pathogens-antibiotic-resistant-bacteria.amp

Could soil used in ancient Irish folk medicine fight antimicrobial resistance?

In a new discovery, a team of scientists have shown that Northern Irish soil has antibiotic-producing bacteria that could help in the fight against antimicrobial resistance.
The Traditional Medicine Group, which is a collaboration between scientists at Swansea University, and researchers in Brazil and Ireland, has discovered an antibiotic-producing species in Irish soil, and believe they have identified new varieties of antibiotics that could help to save lives.
https://www.healtheuropa.eu/could-soil-used-in-ancient-irish-folk-medicine-fight-antimicrobial-resistance/104970/

May consumption of probiotic food have an adverse effect, besides the health benefits?

A glimpse of antimicrobial resistance gene diversity in kefir and yoghurt

Fermented foods, like yoghurt and kefir, naturally contains bacteria in high amounts.
New research has found numerous antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs) in commonly used fermenting bacteria.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-80444-5

Livestock Farming’s Role In The Antibiotic Resistance Crisis

Public Health England recently announced that there are 165 new antibiotic-resistant infections every day in England. Antimicrobial-resistance (AMR) is a global problem and it is increasing. Where are these new infections coming from and should we be worried?
https://plantbasednews.org/opinion/livestock-farming-antibiotic-resistance-crisis/

COVID and AMR: Crisis Reframes Antibiotics Fight

2020 will be long-remembered for the COVID-19 pandemic, which has taken almost 1.5 million lives globally as of Dec. 1. However, another pandemic—drug-resistant bacterial and fungal infections—kills more than 700,000 people each year. Worse still, it is estimated that by 2050, well after SARS-CoV-2 has hopefully been defeated, 10 million people worldwide will die from antimicrobial-resistant (AMR) infections.
https://www.pharmexec.com/view/covid-and-amr-crisis-reframes-antibiotics-fight

4 Key Priorities for Fighting Superbugs in 2021

Pandemic offers lessons for combating antibiotic resistance, underscores need for greater public health preparedness

Over the past year, COVID-19 has taken a grave toll in lives as well as on medical and health care systems worldwide. The pandemic has laid bare the importance of public health readiness and the myriad consequences when such a crisis strikes an unprepared population.
Even as the world is working to defeat COVID-19, another global health threat is lurking: antibiotic resistance.
https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2021/01/14/4-key-priorities-for-fighting-superbugs-in-2021

The surfaces that kill bacteria and viruses

By copying the texture of insect wings or using new types of materials to create surfaces that kill or inhibit microbes, we could stop infections before they even get into the body.
Currently, 700,000 people die each year of drug-resistant diseases.
As Larrouy-Maumus, an infectious disease researcher at Imperial College London in the UK, warns, “If we do nothing, 10 million people per year will die.”
He is among those looking for new ways to tackle antimicrobial resistance. His plan is to turn the very surfaces that many of these pathogens use to spread from person to person into weapons against them.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200529-the-surfaces-that-kill-bacteria-and-viruses

A New Type of Antibiotics Help the Immune System Fight Pathogens

Reporting in Nature, scientists have identified a new group of compounds that may help us get out of the antibiotic-resistant bacteria crisis. These novel drugs work by improving the immune system’s natural ability to fight pathogens while also battling the infection directly.
https://www.labroots.com/trending/microbiology/19530/type-antibiotics-help-immune-system-fight-pathogens

AMR, the next pandemic?

It is now estimated 700,000 people die each year as a result of drug-resistant diseases, with this number predicted to increase to over 10 million deaths per year by 2050. The current COVID-19 pandemic appears to have accelerated the threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), as many patients admitted to hospitals displaying COVID-19 symptoms are treated with antibiotics to reduce their chances of contracting secondary bacterial infections, making resistant bacteria more common.
https://microbiologysociety.org/blog/antimicrobial-resistance-the-next-pandemic.html

Dealing with antimicrobial resistance during COVID-19

To coincide with Antimicrobial Awareness Week 2020, a new report of case studies has been published that gives a platform to people living with drug-resistant infections, those that have survived them, and to the clinicians contending with them.
The report, from the frontlines of the pandemic in the UK, US, South Africa and India, captures unique views on the COVID-19 pandemic, providing a first-hand look at how the real-life experience and challenges of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) collide with the realities of COVID-19.
The report is a warning that without action on the slow-moving pandemic of AMR, more lives will be lost and the fundamentals of modern medicine will break down.
https://www.healtheuropa.eu/dealing-with-antimicrobial-resistance-during-covid-19/104085/

AMR: what’s the issue, and why is it so important?

AMR causes 700,000 deaths every year and the numbers keep growing. Antimicrobials are drugs used against different kinds of viruses, bacteria, etc.; resistance is developed through exposure to these drugs or the misuse of them. But why are antimicrobials important?
Learn more about the disease and the global situation here:
https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2016-02-07/antimicrobial-resistance-whats-the-issue-and-why-is-it-so-important

How do we reduce antibiotic resistance from livestock?

AMR can be a source of danger for both animals and human beings. Animals are also prone to infections and antibiotics are a treatment solution for the infected ones. However, the mass use of antibiotics to protect the livestock’s health causes serious issues.
How does AMR work when it comes to animals? When and how to use antibiotics for livestock? Click here to find out more:
https://ourworldindata.org/antibiotic-resistance-from-livestock

Frontiers 2017: Emerging Issues of Environmental Concern

AMR is one of the biggest health issues of the 21st century – but what else is it threatening? The unnecessary use of antibiotics has created other problems such as the careless disposal of antimicrobials. Now, this is yet another environmental issue facing our planet.
How does the careless disposal of antimicrobials produce bacteria that can resist them? How does it affect the environment? How can we fight against it? Read more about the topic:
https://www.unenvironment.org/resources/frontiers-2017-emerging-issues-environmental-concern

AMR: a major European and global challenge

If current trends continue, we will revert to world where simple infections are no longer treatable. See European Commission’s fact sheet about AMR:
https://ec.europa.eu/health/amr/sites/health/files/antimicrobial_resistance/docs/amr_2017_factsheet.pdf

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR): definition by WHO

What is Antimicrobial resistance? Antimicrobial resistance happens when microorganisms (such as bacteria, fungi, viruses, and parasites) change when they are exposed to antimicrobial drugs (such as antibiotics, antifungals, antivirals, antimalarials, and anthelmintics). Microorganisms that develop antimicrobial resistance are sometimes referred to as “superbugs” .
https://www.who.int/health-topics/antimicrobial-resistance

The economic burden of AMR

The world needs accurate estimates of the burden of AMR threat in terms of both health and cost, and to parameterise cost-effectiveness evaluations of interventions aimed at solving this problem. See the WHO fact sheet for more information:
https://www.who.int/infection-prevention/tools/IPC_AMR_A4.pdf