Global Cause
In this issue
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Using vaccines to slow the global AMR crisis
Vaccines don’t just prevent disease; they also slow the rise of antimicrobial resistance. As immunisation rates fall, experts warn we risk losing one of medicine’s best defences. Vaccines and antibiotics have revolutionised public health. The introduction of the Expanded Program on Immunisation in the 1970s led to remarkable reductions in child mortality rates.1 Similarly, the...
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Antimicrobial resistance threatens treatment progress and the lives of cancer patients
A cancer advocacy group warns that data relating to antimicrobial infections (AMI) in cancer patients is being under-recorded in hospitals across Europe. Cancer Patients Europe (CPE) believes the risk posed by antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in cancer care is being overlooked and that the cause of death in cancer sufferers often fails to reflect the fact...
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Novel antibiotics are failing to reach patients: here’s why and what needs to change
A leading expert voices highly cautious optimism over the very few steps taken today that could help tackle the threat to patients’ lives and their medical care from antimicrobial resistance (AMR). With AMR contributing to millions of deaths and costing the global economy billions of dollars, Dr Najy Alsayed, Head of Infectious Diseases in Menarini,...
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Biotech investment aims to tackle global AMR crisis
Policymakers have been warned that a USD1 billion fund to support development of new antibiotics is only a ‘temporary stopgap’ while urgently awaiting more robust market.solutions to take place. A groundbreaking fund is helping support smaller biotech firms in the race to develop antibiotics to combat antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Funding for AMR solutions The AMR...
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Strategies to prevent AMR escalation and reverting to pre-penicillin times
The evolution of superbugs runs the risk of bringing medicine back by a hundred years. What can be done to prevent this? In 1941, police officer Albert Alexander was injured in a bombing raid. His wounds rapidly became infected, and he lost an eye. Dying, with his head covered in abscesses, doctors treated him with...
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Undervalued and essential: how vaccines could turn the tide against AMR
While antimicrobial resistance (AMR) action plans typically emphasise antibiotics and hygiene, a critical solution remains underutilised: immunisation. Vaccines prevent infections before they start, reducing the need for antibiotics and slowing the spread of resistance. Yet, only 13% of national antimicrobial resistance (AMR) plans currently incorporate immunisation as a key intervention.1 The UK’s Role in AMR...
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Specialist pharmaceutical consultancy paves the way for smarter antibiotic development
Antibiotic development has become unattractive to many large pharmaceutical companies, leaving academics and smaller entrepreneurial companies to drive research and development. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) represents a significant and global threat to public health, making infections harder to treat, increasing disease spread and resulting in poor patient outcomes. Rienk Pypstra, Chief Medical Officer and Head of...
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Why IV antibiotic underdosing is a critical issue in patient care
Underdosing IV antibiotics is a growing healthcare concern, impacting clinical outcomes, financial and operational efficiency and the environment. Underdosing occurs as residual IV antibiotic fluid remains in the tubing of administration sets (drip) at the end of the infusion. In the absence of flushing the line, patients can miss out on between 20%–40% of the...
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Why addressing parasitic disease issues will also help to combat AMR
Parasitic diseases are caused by infectious agents, which maintain a parasitic relationship in which ‘one organism benefits at the expense of the other.’ Parasitic diseases include a broad spectrum of agents, such as worms (eg. ascaris), protozoans (eg. malaria, babesia) and arthropods (eg. mosquitoes, ticks). They directly cause diseases in a host or act as...
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s Sponsored
Rapid UTI diagnostics platform helps flight global misuse of antibiotics
Medical device company showcases groundbreaking multipurpose diagnostic platform, which enables the rapid detection of both urinary tract infection (UTI) and antibiotic sensitivity, helping to combat catastrophic levels of antimicrobial resistance. The rise of antimicrobial-resistant superbugs is a quiet but mounting threat fueled by antibiotic misuse, resulting in bacteria that withstand current treatments. Timely diagnostic innovations...