“Our contribution is increasingly important. We can provide the clinician not only with a precise response that identifies the etiological agent and in some cases the degree of progression of the infection, but also an overall picture, very valuable for the clinician, which helps him to define the personalized pharmacological treatment”. So Pierangelo Clerici, president of Amcli Ets, Italian clinical microbiologists association and Uo director. Microbiology Asst Ovest Milanese, yesterday, in Rimini, at the end of the 50th National Congress of Amcli Ets recalling the importance of a microbiology no longer limited to the laboratory but integrated with the hospital clinic.
In the record-breaking edition – underlines a note from the association – more than 1,500 participants (over 300 under 30), 111 postgraduates, 347 posters presented, “the commitment of clinical microbiologists to participate in the creation of a new approach to the health of the future, the only one capable of reconciling the needs of targeted diagnostics and therapy, with the rigor of public finance.Without our contribution, medicine cannot reduce the time required for diagnosis and definition of the most effective therapy. We ask political decision-makers to fully exploit our role and to invest so that the experiences with which the pandemic emergency has been faced are not lost. Threats of new possible pandemics are all around us. The surveillance network set up and implemented for the Covid – the specialists recall – constitutes an indispensable starting point which must be constantly updated, without forgetting the other infections d i viral, bacterial, fungal or protozoan origin which continued to affect millions of patients during the years of the pandemic”.
All this is possible thanks to the continuous progress that technology makes available to the laboratory. Examples of this are the new approaches to antibiotic susceptibility testing, the use of molecular syndromic panels, Ngs sequencing (Next-generation sequencing, ed) in the study of microorganisms, rapid genotypic diagnostic tests for the identification of mechanisms of antibiotic resistance, etc.
The attention of microbiologists remains high on some topics covered in Rimini. Among these is antibiotic resistance, towards which there are now signs of confirmation for greater precision and timeliness in the diagnosis and in the consequent start of the treatment phase. Likewise, viral infections remain a particularly attentive field. “Historically – observes Clerici – these are infections capable of moving quickly on a planetary scale, in the evolution of which species leaps are not infrequent. In this phase we are monitoring cases of avian flu for which the surveillance and collection of data that the clinical microbiology laboratories ensure on a national scale is essential”.
More generally – the note continues – it was recalled how the difficult years of Covid did not distract attention from other historically widespread infections in Italy and the rest of the world. Just think of hepatitis of viral origin, HIV, maternal-fetal infections, tuberculosis and severe fungal diseases. “These are activities – recalls the Amcli resident – where diagnosis and surveillance require important resources, appropriate knowledge, and a commitment on the part of microbiologists, which has never been lacking in recent years. A health care that is more attentive to these needs and the subsistence of resources that allow the functioning of an effective control mechanism are requests that come not only from the pandemic experience, but also from citizens for whom the environment and health remain two fundamental priorities”.
“The health of people, animals and ecosystems – continues Clerici – are mutually influenced by the serious climate changes we are witnessing. Among the many topics that were debated during the congress, much attention was paid to the history of conflicts and the consequent pandemics An experience – he concludes – frequent in the history of humanity, today more relevant than ever in various parts of the world”.