The rise of antibiotic resistance is not a new problem, but it has received considerable attention recently as its global effects become more widely understood.
For instance, the White House developed and released a plan earlier this spring to slow the growth of antibiotic resistance over the next five years, and it requires changes from hospitals, physicians and others across industries. The White House also hosted a Forum on Antibiotic Stewardship in June, after which the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology announced a new advocacy agenda to promote antibiotic stewardship.
Highlighted below are 10 studies and research developments covered by Becker's Infection Control & Quality in recent months on antibiotics and drug resistance.
1. Variation in antibiotic prescription is driven more by providers than patients, according to a study conducted by the VA Salt Lake City Health Care System and the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. For instance, overprescribing antibiotics for acute respiratory infections is an issue that has been known for some time, yet this study found 68 percent of all visits for such infections resulted in antibiotic prescriptions. Additionally, the habits of individual providers accounted for 59 percent of the variation in prescriptions. Read more.
2. Garlic extract was found to be effective against antimicrobial-resistant urinary tract infections in a study published in the Pertanika Journal of Tropical Agricultural Science. Not only that, but the study found even crude extracts of this plant showed good activity against multidrug-resistant strains where antibiotic therapy had limited or no effect. The study authors say the results provide hope for developing alternative drugs to fight the menace of growing antibacterial resistance. Read more.
3. Not only can overuse of common antibiotics contribute to the growing level of antibiotic resistance, it can also have a significant effect on childhood development, according to a study published in Nature Communications. Researchers from NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City tested the use of common antibiotics on mice to see the effects multiple rounds of antibiotics could have on human children. They found mice treated with the antibiotics gained more weight, developed larger bones than untreated mice, and had their gut microbiome disrupted. Read more.
4. Professional and psychosocial factors — such as anxiety about missing an infection or being influenced by the prescribing habits of supervisors — can significantly influence a physician's antibiotic prescribing habits in the inpatient setting, according to a study published in the journal Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology. The study authors argue that a better understanding of these factors could be leveraged in future efforts to improve antibiotic prescribing practices and help reduce antibiotic resistance. Read more.
5. Azithromycin — a common antibiotic sold commercially as Zithromax Z-Pak — can effectively kill several multidrug-resistant organisms including Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Acinetobacter baumannii, according to a study published in EBioMedicine. Moreover, the study found that the antibiotic was especially effective against these MDROs when paired with another antibiotic, colistin. Read more.
6. Researchers at the University of California in Merced and American University in the District of Columbia have 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. Going forward, the researchers hope to test the treatment paths in a clinical setting, working with physicians to rotate antibiotics and maximize their efficacy. Read more.
7. Deep in the remote Amazonian jungles in Venezuela lives an isolated tribe of Yanomami Amerindians who offer a key to "our microbial past," according to Jose C. Clemente, PhD, assistant professor of genetics and genomics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. Dr. Clemente's study found bacterial diversity in the Yanomami people — who were previously unexposed to antibiotics or industrialized diets — was nearly double that of people living in industrialized countries, indicating a link between antibiotic usage or western diet to the reduced bacterial diversity observed in modern societies. Read more.
8. A 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. The study included roughly 160 women, ages 23 to 88, undergoing elective gynecological surgeries. Having patients take cranberry juice capsules instead of antibiotics can help avoid antibiotic resistance and protect the good bacteria living in and on the human body from damage. Read more.
9. Laboratory experiments performed by researchers at McGill University in Montreal found a concentrated maple syrup extract makes antibiotics more effective against disease-causing bacteria. The scientists also found the extract influences the gene expression of the bacteria by repressing a number of genes linked with antibiotic resistance and virulence. The results could lead to the eventual incorporation of maple syrup extract into the capsules of antibiotics. Read more.
10. Recent research has revealed that chlorine, which is commonly used by treatment plants to disinfect sewage, may not completely eliminate pharmaceuticals from waste and may contribute to antibiotic resistance. Not only is chlorine failing to remove pharmaceuticals from wastewater at treatment plants, it may actually lead to the development of new antibiotics in the water, according to the results of numerous lab experiments conducted at the University of North Carolina in Charlotte. Read more.