Uncharted soil DNA might be fodder for new classes of antibiotics capable of vanquishing superbugs like multidrug resistant TB, strep and E. coli. That’s why Sean Brady of New York’s Rockefeller University is subjecting a closetful of dirt to next-gen sequencing. And it’s…
A superbug resistant to the last-line antibiotic colistin has been found in seagulls in Europe and South America—indicating one vehicle for the spread of resistant bacteria. 2 separate research teams in Lithuania and Argentina, in letters to the Journal of Antimicrobial…
Of the nearly 2 million Americans infected with antibiotic-resistant bacteria each year, 23,000 people die. That’s more deaths than by homicide, observes Sushrut Jangi, an internist and instructor in medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Nearly 80 percent of…
Delegates to last week’s 69th World Health Assembly heard copious reasons for the global community to fear the rising tide of antimicrobial resistance. However, Keiji Fukuda, WHO’s Special Representative on the issue, finds at least one reason for some cautious optimism:…
Adding more urgency to the need to develop alternate drugs, a highly resistant superbug previously unseen in the U.S. has reached the country.
GENEVA – With forecasts of 10 million deaths per year—more than current annual cancer deaths—and $1 trillion in lost economic output from antimicrobial resistance by 2050, AMR surged to the top rank of health concerns at this week’s World Health Assembly.
With 700,000 people dying annually from antibiotic-resistant diseases, and dire predictions of up to 10 million dying per year by 2050, the situation is described as a “crisis” and “apocalypse” even by the venerable and staid Smithsonian. Still, there’s still hope to turn…
The future is dark, at least when it comes to the rise of drug-resistant superbugs, according to next week’s cover story in The Economist. This week, a UK study estimated that 700,000 people die annually from infections by drug-resistant pathogens and parasites. By 2050,…
Perdue, the 4th largest poultry producer in the US, 2 years ago stopped feeding chicks the antibiotic gentamicin. Antibiotics in animal feed, used to stimulate growth and ward off illness, contribute to antibiotic resistance in humans, making so-called superbugs more…
Almost 1/3 of all prescriptions doled out each year in the US—about 47 million—are unnecessary, according to a major study in JAMA. The research from the CDC and the Pew Charitable Trust provides numbers, said David Hyun, a senior officer with Pew's antibiotic resistance…
