Tag: antibiotic resistance

Treatment-Resistant Sexually Transmitted Disease Found in Austria

A new strain of treatment-resistant gonorrhea has been detected in Austria, with researchers suspecting that treatment of the sexually transmitted disease resulted in a failure. “Worryingly, this is the second strain in an Asian Neisseria gonorrhoeae genomic sub-lineage,” wrote the authors of an April study published in Eurosurveillance. “Enhanced resistance surveillance and actions are imperative…


Silver: Metal as Medicine

Silver has been used as an anti-microbial agent long before people knew of microbes. The Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, and other ancient cultures all used silver vessels to safely store food and purify water. American pioneers added silver coins to milk bottles to slow spoilage. Ancient doctors treated wounds with various silver preparations to speed healing….


Experts Discover New Combination Therapy to Combat Superbugs

A preclinical study led by researchers from Monash University has discovered that a combination of phage and antibiotic therapy may be the most effective to combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria. “We have been able to confirm that, even in complex living systems, treatment with our characterised phages can reliably steer bacteria towards a phage-resistant variant that is…


Surprising Ways COVID-19 May Destroy Your Immune System

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has been declared one of the top 10 global public health threats to humanity, and it didn’t disappear once the COVID-19 pandemic appeared. Instead, it’s gotten worse, as infection control measures and hand hygiene using antimicrobial gels have become ubiquitous. AMR causes about 700,000 deaths globally every year, but researchers estimated in mid-2020…


Antibiotics: Even Low Use in Children Can Have a Negative Impact

Primary care physicians in the United Kingdom carry out more than 300 million patient consultations every year and at least a quarter of these deal with children. Almost two-thirds of such appointments are for coughs, sore throats, or earaches—illnesses that young children commonly get. Doctors and nurses group these types of illnesses as “acute respiratory tract infections.”…


How the COVID Response Is Priming the Next Pandemic

“Antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest public health challenges of our time,” declares the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). And while antibiotic resistance and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) took a backseat to the COVID-19 pandemic, the problem hasn’t gone away. Antibiotic resistance (AR) refers to bacteria resistant to antibiotics. Antimicrobial resistance is a broader term…


Children’s Hospitals Are Partly to Blame as Superbugs Increasingly Attack Kids

A memory haunts Christina Fuhrman: the image of her toddler Pearl lying pale and listless in a hospital bed, tethered to an IV to keep her hydrated as she struggled against a superbug infection. “She survived by the grace of God,” Fuhrman said of her eldest child in this central Missouri city almost five years…


Antibiotics Risks in Cold and Flu Season

Antibiotics are over-prescribed in the United States, Canada, and worldwide, often for infections that do not need their help, particularly respiratory conditions. While these unnecessary prescriptions may contribute to the development of resistant bacteria, there is another reason to be cautious about antibiotics: Direct harms caused by these drugs. Our group—a family physician, an infectious disease specialist, and a health…