Antimicrobial Resistance: Main challenges in the post pandemic

2023-05-11 20:00:59

• The modern era of antibiotics began in 1910 with the first clinical use of a synthetic antimicrobial.
• It is currently estimated that 9 out of 10 viral infections are unjustly treated with antibiotics.
• If the current trend continues, it is estimated that by 2050 antimicrobial resistance would be responsible for 10 million deaths per year.

According to a recently published study in The Lancetin 2019 the global burden associated with drug-resistant infections was estimated at 4.95 million deaths. Of that number, antimicrobial resistance was the direct cause of at least 1.27 million. This number will increase unless steps are taken to curb it. COVID-19 infection has further fueled this problem and, if this trend continues, mortality may increase to 10 million per year by 2050.

The start of antibiotics

The so-called modern era of antibiotics began in 1910 with the first clinical use of a synthetic antimicrobial. The Salvadoran arsenic-based drug manufactured by Paul Honest to treat syphilis. Since then, antimicrobials, including antibiotics, have saved countless lives and contributed significantly to the control of infectious diseases that once dominated human morbidity and mortality.

Now, the global rise of community and hospital-associated antibiotic-resistant microorganisms is one of the most challenging public health threats of the 21st century.

The call to action against the threat of antibiotic resistance inspired the creation of the US Presidential Advisory Council to Combat Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteriaas well as a United Nations global action initiative.

New initiative against Antimicrobial Resistance

And now the Hospital Houston Methodist announced joins these efforts through a strategic collaboration program led by Dr. Cesar Arias, Dr. John F. III, and Dr. Ann H. Bookout, called DYNAMITE Dynamics of Colonization and Infection by Multidrug-Resistant Pathogens in Immunocompromised and Critically Illpatients.

According to Dr. Arias, “DYNAMITE is a project that involves five institutions at the medical center, including Baylor College of Medicine, MD Anderson Cancer Center, the University of Houston, Rice University (including the Gulf Coast Consortia) and Houston Hospital. Methodist, who brings together expertise in the microbiome, clinical microbiology, omics, and bioinformatics to really dissect these interactions very carefully and try to understand this process.”

The project currently has two groups of patients: intensive care unit patients and bone marrow transplant patients, both currently recruited at Houston Methodist Hospital.

The DYNAMITE project has three objectives: to elucidate the main microbial, clinical and antimicrobial resistance determinants that affect colonization and infection, to assess the role of the commensal microbiota, and to define the functional aspects of the key microbiota and the mechanisms of protection against colonization. /infection.

Also read:

Clostridium Difficile Infection Made Stronger by Antibiotic Resistance

Doctors are guilty of antimicrobial resistance according to Cofepris

Antimicrobial resistance: 9 out of 10 viral infections are unjustly treated with antibiotics