10 things to know about antibiotic resistance

Antibiotic resistance is one of the most pressing problems in healthcare today. Here are 10 things to know.

1. Antibiotic resistance is the ability of microbes to resist the effects of drugs, according to the CDC. Antibiotics are among the most commonly prescribed drugs and up to 50 percent of the time, antibiotics are not prescribed appropriately — often they are prescribed when not needed or with incorrect dosing or duration.1

2. Antibiotic-resistant germs cause more than 2 million illnesses and at least 23,000 deaths each year in the United States, according to the CDC. However, coordination among healthcare facilities can significantly reduce these deaths. For example, up to 70 percent fewer patients will get carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae over five years if facilities coordinate. Healthcare facilities can share information regarding antiobiotic resistance as well as outbreaks. They can also implement shared infection control initiatives to prevent the spread of germs from facility to facility.2 

3. Antibiotic resistance is becoming a quickly growing problem the world over. Globally, a major driver of this resistance is antibiotic use due to the burden of infectious disease in low and middle income countries with easy access to antibiotics, noted "The State of the World's Antibiotics 2015" report.3  Fears that the world is facing a rapidly thinning pipeline of new antibiotics have shifted the promotion of policies from conservation to new developments.

4. Variation in antibiotic prescription is driven more by providers than patients, according to new research, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Ten percent of physicians write an antibiotic prescription for nearly all patients with acute respiratory infections like a cold or bronchitis. Additionally, despite the fact that guidelines recommend against broad-spectrum antibiotics as a first line of defense for respiratory infections, the researchers found a 10 percent increase in broad-spectrum antibiotic prescriptions between 2005 and 2012.

5. Researchers are making inroads with regard to antibiotic research. One study, conducted at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, found that cranberry juice capsules reduced UTI rates by approximately 50 percent among patients, which is similar to the reduction rates patients experience when they take antibiotics as a preventative measure before surgery.

6. In another study published in PLOS ONE, researchers developed a method of cycling antibiotics that may help reverse bacterial resistance. They combined laboratory work with mathematics and computer technology to identify optimal cycling strategies that returned bacteria to a pre-resistant state.

7. Another new approach that could mitigate the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Scientists at Arizona State University in Tempe have developed a microfluidic technology that can sort antibiotic-resistant bacteria from strains that are susceptible to antibiotics in a matter of minutes by analyzing extremely small samples.

8. The White House developed a plan to slow the antibiotic resistance growth over the next five years, which includes reducing rates of the most deadly antibiotic-resistant infections and implementing better prescribing practices in livestock and hospitals.

9. The HHS, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the DOD appointed nationally recognized experts to the Presidential Advisory Council on Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria. The council includes 20 voting members from hospitals, medical schools, advocacy groups and policy research centers.

10. Despite the growing global health concern over antibiotic resistance, nearly half of Americans have never even heard of the problem, according to a recent Consumer Reports National Research Center poll. Forty-one percent of survey respondents said they had never even heard of antibiotic resistance. Only half (52 percent) strongly agreed that bacteria resistant to multiple antibiotics, so-called "superbugs," are a major public health problem today.

References:

1CDC: Antibiotic Resistance
http://www.cdc.gov/drugresistance/about.html

2CDC's "Making Health Care Safer" report
http://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/stop-spread/

3The State of the World's Antibiotics 2015 report
https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/quality/alarming-amount-of-bacteria-resistant-to-last-resort-antibiotics-15-report-findings.html

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