The Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) and the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) have developed and published new guidelines on antibiotic stewardship in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases. Preauthorization of broad-spectrum antibiotics and prospective review after two or three days of treatment should form the cornerstone of antibiotic stewardship programs to ensure the right drug is prescribed at the right time for the right diagnosis. These are among the numerous recommendations included in new guidelines released by the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) and Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) and published...

George Osborne warned delegates at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington, DC, on 14 April 2016 that antibiotic resistance will become “an even greater threat to mankind than cancer” if the world fails to take action. The Chancellor said that according to evidence from the UK’s Review on Antimicrobial Resistance, antibiotic resistance could claim 10 million lives worldwide by the year 2050 if we, as a global society, fail to act.   Click here to read the full article.    ...

The DRIVE-AB consortium had a significant presence at this year's European Congress on Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) 2016 in Amsterdam, being featured at the European Network Corner, the Pipeline Corner and Pipeline Talk, and presenting a numerous abstracts. The consortium presented a poster in the European Network Corner on DRIVE-AB's progress to date. Please click here to see the overview of the project's midterm progress. DRIVE-AB Work Package 1A, ‘Responsible use of antibiotics, new and old’, presented preliminary results at the Congress; one oral presentation and four posters (details below) on quality and...

The Japanese government has adopted an action plan to reduce the use of antibiotics to two-thirds of the current level by 2020, in efforts to combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The move followed the World Health Organization's adoption last year of the World Health Assembly's global action plan on antimicrobial resistance. For the full story, see this article in the Khaleej Times    ...

In consultation with the Secretaries of Defense and Agriculture, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary’s establishment of the President’s Advisory Council on Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria (PACCARB) is one of several recent U.S. Government (USG) actions to respond to the threat. As stipulated in Executive Order 13676 and their Charter, the PACCARB advises the HHS Secretary on the programs and policies intended to support the implementation and evaluation of the National Action Plan (NAP) for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria (CARB); all written reports created by the PACCARB will then be provided to the President by the HHS Secretary. DRIVE-AB Read more