antibiotic resistance

WAAW 2022: A focus on prevention (IPC and vaccination)

Jon Otter (@jonotter) antimicrobial resistance , , , , , ,

Was delighted to introduce our series of events planned to coincide with World Antibiotic Awareness Week 2022 earlier today. I gave a short talk on why preventing infection via IPC measures and vaccination needs to be a cornerstone of our strategy to turn the time on antimicrobial resistance (slides here).

I also shot a short video to get us thinking about how the language we use will influence the degree to which we connect with the various stakeholders that need to collaborate to address antimicrobial resistance:

Continue reading →

Mutational colistin resistance in CPE is the clear and present danger, not plasmid-mediated mcr genes

Jon Otter (@jonotter) CRE , , , , ,

There has been a lot of concern in scientific journals and the mainstream media about colistin resistance in Enterobacteriaceae caused by plasmid-mediated resistance genes (the mcr genes). However, an article published today by our group suggests that mutational colistin resistance rather than plasmid-mediated mcr genes is a more pressing clinical threat.

Continue reading →

The antibiotic course has had its day?

Andreas Voss (@AVIPNL) Antibiotic resistance, antibiotic stewardship, health , , , ,

Schermafbeelding 2017-07-27 om 10.19.00

In a recent BMJ article, Llewelyn et al. argue that the old dogma of completing a prescribed course of antibiotics to prevent antibiotic-resistance is a myth, not based on evidence.  Actually the opposite, namely taking antibiotics for longer than necessary, increases the risk of resistance.

While I love breaking down old dogmas  (we actually had a poll on this topic some time back), many of today’s papers in the Netherlands (and I am pretty sure elsewhere, too) misinterpret the study, by slaughtering the message to patients to “always complete the full prescription”.  One of the Netherlands most influential newspapers the Volkskrant, already wrote: “Finishing antibiotic course? Nonsense.”

Continue reading →

Going for GNBSI

Jon Otter (@jonotter) GNBSI , , , , , , , ,

We’ll be publishing the results of the vote on whether or not we can halve HA-GNBSI by 2021 later this week. Right now, it looks like Martin is heading for a comfortable, if somewhat depressing victory (“No, we can’t halve GNBSI by 2021”) but there’s still time to ride a wave of positivity and vote with me that “Yes, we can halve GNBSI by 2021”. So, I thought that now would be an appropriate time to review the recent JHI paper that both Martin and I referred to, providing some enhanced epidemiological data on E. coli BSIs in England.

Continue reading →

KPC Casanova carbapenemase

Jon Otter (@jonotter) CRE , , , , , , ,

2000px-bacterial_mobile_elements_svg

The risk of interspecies transmission of carbapenemase genes is a real concern. We can barely get our heads around many different types of carbapenemase in a whole host of Gram-negative bacteria (compare the relative simplicity of methicillin resistance in S. aureus: a single gene, in a single species). Throw in interspecies horizontal transmission of carbapenemases and things get really tricky! Do we implement different control strategies to try to interrupt the transmission of carbapenemases (in contrast to the organisms themselves)? Could you have a multispecies outbreak of a carbapenemase on your hands and not even realise it?

Continue reading →

Halving GNBSI

Jon Otter (@jonotter) GNBSI , , , ,

gnbsi-halved

The Department of Health announced last week their intention to halve the rate of E. coli BSI by 2020. Whilst this is a move that should be embraced, it will be an enormous challenge to achieve. The reduction that has been delivered with MRSA BSI could be seen as a model for success (and I suspect that if you were a politician, you would see it this way). However, it is vital to recognise that E. coli BSI and, more broadly, Gram-negative BSI (GNBSI) are not the same as MRSA BSI, and will require a different reduction strategy.

Continue reading →

Poultry production and antimicrobial resistance in India

Andreas Voss (@AVIPNL) Antibiotic resistance , ,

Schermafbeelding 2016-03-31 om 00.46.37

Take a look at these three stories on intensive poultry production and antimicrobial resistance in India published yesterday on the Bloomberg website. In accordance with what the movie industry does, these articles should be accompanied by a warning: “These articles contains scenes that some readers may find disturbing”. As the editor of the articles said in an email to colleagues that forwarded it to me: “I think you’ll agree that these are important stories and deserve attention (and hopefully a response from the appropriate authorities and the community).” Obviously, I do agree.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2016-03-29/antibiotic-apocalypse-fear-stoked-by-india-s-drugged-chickens

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-03-29/hen-s-eye-view-of-drug-use-in-the-fastest-growing-chicken-market

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-03-29/baby-s-death-shows-global-threat-from-wonder-drug-s-demise

We need to EMBRACE engineers in the fight against HCAI and AMR

Jon Otter (@jonotter) Antibiotic resistance , , , , , ,

Embrace logo ok

I attended the first EMBRACE seminar today at Imperial College London. EMBRACE (Engineering, Medicine, Natural Sciences and Physical Sciences Bridging Research in Antimicrobial resistance: Collaboration and Exchange) is a gap-bridging collaborative aiming to bring together Engineers, Scientists, Doctors, and others to find new ways to address AMR and tackle HCAI. I thought I’d share some of my highlights from the seminar.

Continue reading →

Review on AMR: progress to date

Jon Otter (@jonotter) Antibiotic resistance , , , ,

amr review

Like many others, I am keeping a close eye on the UK Government’s commissioned ‘Review on AMR’. The Review team have been tremendously productive over the last few years, already releasing detailed reports on:

Continue reading →

Colistin resistance in CPE: an emerging threat

Jon Otter (@jonotter) Antibiotic resistance , , ,

colistin structure

I am becoming increasingly interested in colistin resistance in CPE, not least because of this work that we will be presenting on colistin resistance in CPE at ECCMID in a few months time. I have been brushing up on how colistin resistance occurs in CPE, and why it is important, so thought I’d share my findings. I started with a pubmed search for “colistin resistance mechanism” on 12/02/16 and this is what I found (85 hits from the initial search):

Colisin

Colistin is an old class (discovered during WWII) of cationic antibiotic. Colistin (polymyxin E) is a polypeptide bactericidal agent and is one of the two clinically available forms of polymyxin agents (polymyxin B and polymyxin E). Colistin interacts with lipopolysaccharide in the outer membrane, resulting in a leaky and ultimately dead bacterial cell.1 Issues with presumed nephrotoxicity have kept colistin very much on the top shelf, but the emergence of CPE has brought colistin down a shelf or two – and we are learning that the nephrotoxicity tradionally associated with colisin may not be so bad afterall.1

Continue reading →