Category Archives: antibiotic resistance
NCBI Pathogen Detection Presents the Antibiotic Susceptibility Test (AST) Browser
Have you ever wanted to compare antibiotic resistance data and resistance gene calls in bacteria? Now you can! Easily access and browse antibiotic susceptibility testing (AST) data and link to other NCBI resources using the new AST Browser. NCBI has collected AST data for many isolates in the Pathogen Detection system. Features and Benefits Data … Continue reading NCBI Pathogen Detection Presents the Antibiotic Susceptibility Test (AST) Browser
Posted by in antibiotic resistance, NCBI Pathogen Detection, What's New
Come see NCBI at the ASM Microbe Conference 2022
The American Society of Microbiology (ASM) Microbe conference is back, and scheduled to take place in-person, June 9th-13th in Washington, D.C. NCBI staff member Dr. Michael Feldgarden will be recognized by ASM with an award for his research. Other NCBI staff will present posters on NCBI resources and will also be available at our booth … Continue reading Come see NCBI at the ASM Microbe Conference 2022
The post Come see NCBI at the ASM Microbe Conference 2022 appeared first on NCBI Insights.
Project Firstline Reaches Frontline Healthcare Workforce with Infection Control Training
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted long-standing gaps in infection control knowledge and understanding among the frontline healthcare workforce. Since the onset of the pandemic, healthcare-associated infections and antibiotic-resistant infections have increased, reversing national progress made before 2020.
Infectious disease threats like Ebola, COVID-19, and antibiotic resistance will continue to emerge. It’s more important than ever that we equip our nation’s healthcare workforce with the infection control knowledge they need to protect themselves, their patients, and their communities.
One year ago, this month, CDC launched Project Firstline. Project Firstline provides engaging, innovative, and effective infection control education and training for U.S. frontline healthcare workers.
Meeting the Needs of the Diverse Healthcare Workforce
Project Firstline’s innovative content is designed for all healthcare workers, regardless of their previous training or educational background. The program’s training and educational materials provide critical infection control information in a format that best meets healthcare workers’ needs.
During its first year, Project Firstline and its partners hosted more than 300 educational events on infection control and developed more than 130 educational products. The products are accessible on a variety of digital platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, and CDC and partner websites. Products currently available on the CDC Project Firstline site include:
- A video series featuring CDC’s infectious disease expert, Dr. Abby Carlson
- Explainer videos on infection control basics
- A facilitator toolkit with guided session plans on infection control for COVID-19
- Job aids for on-the-go access
Maximizing Impact through Partnerships
Project Firstline brings together academic, public health, and healthcare partners plus 64 state, local, and territorial health departments to provide infection control educational resources to healthcare workers nationwide.
Our partners have used a diverse range of products and activities to reach healthcare workers with tailored infection control information during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of these activities include Twitter chats, podcasts, videos, and virtual training events simulcast and translated into multiple languages.
Additionally, Project Firstline launched the Community College Collaborative in partnership with the American Hospital Association and the League of Innovation in the Community College. The program is integrating enhanced infection control content into the health programs of community college classrooms. The program was piloted this summer with faculty cohorts from 16 participating colleges across a range of community college settings. Faculty came together to tailor the infection control curriculum for each professional area, with a plan to phase it into their coursework. Professional areas included:
- emergency medical services
- respiratory care
- nursing
- practical nursing and nursing assistants
- medical assisting
This effort will help ensure that the future healthcare workforce starts their careers with key infection control knowledge to protect themselves and their patients.
The Future of Project Firstline
Project Firstline aims to become the go-to resource for infection control among healthcare workers. It will focus on building a strong culture of infection control within all healthcare facilities.
Using insights learned during its first year, the program will create a new suite of readily available and easy-to-consume education materials. The new materials will be designed to help strengthen infection prevention and control capacities beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.
Thanks in advance for your questions and comments on this Public Health Matters post. Please note that CDC does not give personal medical advice. If you are concerned you have a disease or condition, talk to your doctor.
Have a question for CDC? CDC-INFO (http://www.cdc.gov/cdc-info/index.html) offers live agents by phone and email to help you find the latest, reliable, and science-based health information on more than 750 health topics.
Posted by in & Prevention, American Hospital Association, antibiotic resistance, Community College Collaborative, covid 19, Disease Outbreak, ebola, General, healthcare-associated infections, infection control, League for Innovation in the Community College, personal health, Project Firstline, public health, training
Other Diseases Did Not Rest During COVID-19
The COVID-19 response is the largest and longest in CDC history. But the virus that causes COVID-19 wasn’t the only infectious disease that CDC responded to last year. Diseases like those caused by the Marburg virus and antibiotic-resistant bacteria didn’t go away because of the pandemic.
The National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID) deployed 1,736 staff who devoted 1.35 million hours to the COVID-19 response in 2020. At the same time, the center worked to protect people in other important areas. NCEZID details its activities in the Protecting Health in 2020 NCEZID Progress Report.
The COVID-19 response
The magnitude of CDC’s COVID-19 response was reflected in last year’s raw data. People viewed CDC’s COVID-19 webpages over 2.3 billion times. They used the Coronavirus Self-Checker over 40 million times.
About 1,500 staff, including members of NCEZID, deployed nearly 3,000 times to about 250 cities in the United States and other countries. NCEZID also set records in the amount of funding it awarded. It gave $11 billion to 64 public health departments to help fight the spread of COVID-19.
An NCEZID lab ran 6,417 pathology tests to study COVID-19’s damage on a cellular level. The Advanced Molecular Detection (AMD) program built a national network of more than 600 scientists to track COVID-19’s spread using genetic data while keeping track of new variants.
Over the course of years, NCEZID successfully encouraged 90 percent of U.S. health departments to switch to electronic laboratory reporting. This has paid off during the pandemic response by enabling health departments to send more COVID-19 testing and other data more quickly to CDC.
Other threats
Scientists think that the virus that causes COVID-19 likely circulated in bats before making its way to humans. NCEZID scientists monitor bats for emerging disease threats. Last year, they found an especially deadly strain of Marburg virus circulating in fruit bats in Sierra Leone. Marburg virus disease causes hemorrhaging and other Ebola-like symptoms but is often deadlier than Ebola.
Melioidosis, a life-threatening bacterial disease, infected a few people in the United States last year. Catching it in the country is unusual. Infected people usually get the disease on trips abroad. NCEZID researchers found evidence that melioidosis could be an emerging threat in the U.S.
Other researchers used genetic sequencing data to explore why gastric cancer caused by bacteria afflict Alaskan Native people more than other people.
Years of public health and healthcare measures have reduced infections with antibiotic-resistant germs, but they are still a threat. CDC is spearheading an action plan in communities where infections are on the rise.
The threat of Ebola typifies NCEZID’s dual mission of preparing for and responding to disease threats. Last year, two outbreaks were declared over. Now, two new outbreaks threaten two African countries. Experience gained in last year’s responses will help prepare this year’s Ebola responses.
About NCEZID
NCEZID is one of the national centers, institutes, and offices that together make up CDC. NCEZID protects people from domestic and global health threats, including:
- Foodborne and waterborne illnesses
- Infections that spread in hospitals
- Infections that are resistant to antibiotics
- Deadly diseases like Ebola and anthrax
- Illnesses that affect immigrants, migrants, refugees, and travelers
- Diseases caused by contact with animals
- Diseases spread by mosquitoes, ticks, and fleas
NCEZID has led efforts to prepare for and respond to infectious disease outbreaks. Its staff includes subject matter experts in bacterial, viral, and fungal pathogens and infectious diseases of unknown origin.
Thanks in advance for your questions and comments on this Public Health Matters post. Please note that the CDC does not give personal medical advice. If you are concerned you have a disease or condition, talk to your doctor.
Have a question for CDC? CDC-INFO (http://www.cdc.gov/cdc-info/index.html) offers live agents by phone and email to help you find the latest, reliable, and science-based health information on more than 750 health topics.
New Lab Matters: A game-changer in the fight against antibiotic resistance
Given the global rise of drug-resistant pathogens over the past few decades, some physicians and scientists warn of a possible antibiotic apocalypse—a scary, post-antibiotic era. But a $160 million CDC effort now aims to keep antibiotic resistance rare. And as our feature article shows, the “game-changing” keystone of this effort is the Antibiotic Resistance Laboratory Network.
Here are just a few of this issue’s highlights:
- A Collaborative Effort to Identify Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis—The rpoB Alert
- South Carolina Automates WGS for Foodborne Outbreak Surveillance
- APHL Mozambique Responds to Cyclone Idai
- Biosafety and Beyond: Laboratory Training and Mentorship in the USAPI
- Promoting Community Wellness, Water Quality in Western New York
- Protecting Environmental Health and Resources in Oklahoma
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The post New Lab Matters: A game-changer in the fight against antibiotic resistance appeared first on APHL Lab Blog.
Posted by in 2019, All Posts, antibiotic resistance, APHL, AR Lab Network, biosafety, Biosecurity, CDC infectious diseases, Cyclone Idai, Erie County, foodborne diseases, General, lab matters, Laboratory, laboratory testing, Oklahoma, public health, Public health laboratory, surveillance, tuberculosis, USAPI
Are antibiotics making printers great…again?
By Eric Ransom, APHL-CDC Antimicrobial Resistance Fellow
Let’s be honest: printers have never been that great. These frustrating devices turn what should be a simple office task into a game of chance. Is there paper? Did it jam? Can I get by without replacing the toner cartridge… again? Ugh! I personally cannot wait until this archaic technology sails off into the sunset. Goodbye frustration and hello forestation.
You can imagine my surprise when I heard a PRINTER could help fight one of the most significant public health threats of our time: antibiotic resistance. That’s right. The end of the antibiotic era looms, but hope lies with a printer!
To be fair, this is not your ordinary printer that puts ink to paper. This is a bioprinter that “prints” antibiotics! The technology ultimately helps clinicians decide which antibiotic is most likely to be effective in treating an infection. Prescribing the proper antibiotic is key to saving lives today and preserving antibiotics for tomorrow.
More specifically, the bioprinter makes antibiotic panels for broth microdilution susceptibility testing, a gold-standard method in clinical and public health microbiology. To make an antibiotic panel, the bioprinter dispenses minuscule amounts of antibiotics into a 96-well plate containing liquid that supports microbial growth. Microbiologists can then add a patient’s microbe to the plate and observe which antibiotic (or combination of antibiotics) inhibits growth. If an antibiotic inhibits growth on the plate, chances are good that it will also inhibit growth in the person. Results are shared with clinicians so they can prescribe the best antibiotic(s) to treat the infection. What makes the bioprinter unique is that it can easily make antibiotic plates with complex antibiotic combinations and new-to-market antibiotics. The latter is especially exciting given it can take years before new-to-market antibiotics are included on commercially available plates and systems found in most hospital laboratories.
In 2018, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced a pilot program to implement the bioprinter technology in the Antibiotic Resistance Laboratory Network, a consortium of 56 public health laboratories that aims to rapidly detect and respond to antibiotic resistance. The pilot program already uses the bioprinter to offer expanded antibiotic susceptibility testing for hard-to-treat infections in four public health laboratories: Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene, Minnesota Department of Health Public Health Laboratory, Wadsworth Center Laboratories and Tennessee State Public Health Laboratory. This susceptibility testing is free, compliant with patient testing regulations, and available for all qualifying isolates from any hospital laboratory. The testing is also performed within three working days to quickly assist clinicians with therapeutic management.
The pilot program has already begun susceptibility testing with a new drug combination (aztreonam-avibactam) against Enterobacteriaceae producing a metallo-β-lactamase (MβL). These are some of the most resistant microbes, and there are very few effective treatment options. To qualify for this particular testing, isolates must be non-susceptible to all current β-lactam antibiotics (including either ceftazidime-avibactam or meropenem-vaborbactam). Moving forward, the pilot program will expand testing to include other highly resistant microbes and new-to-market antibiotics.
So how exactly does the bioprinter pilot program work in practice? Let’s say a hospital patient has symptoms of a serious infection. Samples from the patient are tested in the hospital’s laboratory to identify the responsible microbe and to determine possible treatment options. If the microbe is found to be highly resistant and clinicians are in need of additional treatment options, the microbe is sent to one of the four public health laboratories piloting the bioprinter program. Microbiologists there can use the bioprinter to print plates for testing the newest antibiotics to see what, if any, are effective in treating the patient’s infection. Results are then returned to clinicians where the patient is being treated.
Implementation of the bioprinter in the AR Lab Network has the potential to be truly impactful. First, clinicians are given a resource to find new, effective treatment options for their patients’ most resistant infections. Second, compiled data from this pilot program can be used to improve antibiotic prescribing, capture national antibiotic efficacy, help establish antibiotic breakpoints and even inform infection control and prevention practices.
The bioprinter pilot program is a remarkable step forward in the fight against antibiotic resistance. It is important to realize though that this crisis still requires comprehensive long-term intervention including discovery of new antibiotics, development of new diagnostics, and an unequivocal commitment to antibiotic stewardship in healthcare and beyond. In the short term, though, a printer might just be exactly what the doctor ordered.
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Improved search makes it easier to find antimicrobial resistance protein information
It’s now easier to find known antimicrobial resistance (AMR) protein information at NCBI. You can search by gene symbol, protein name, or accession across NCBI databases and retrieve the best representative DNA sequence that is a reference for antimicrobial resistance … Continue reading
Posted by in antibiotic resistance, antimicrobial resistance, What's New
Track pathogenic organisms promptly with the National Database of Antibiotic Resistant Organisms
In response to the rising threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), NCBI built the National Database of Antibiotic Resistant Organisms (NDARO). With NDARO, you can: Browse a curated database of AMR genes Identify AMR genes in bacterial genomes with AMRFinder Identify bacterial … Continue reading
Responding to Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Disease Threats in 2017
The fungal superbug Candida auris causes serious and often fatal infections. It can strike people in the places where they seek care—hospitals and other healthcare facilities. In early 2016, we knew about outbreaks of C. auris infections on multiple continents, but we were not sure whether C. auris was in the United States. Fast forward to 2017: C. auris is a priority for public health workers in the United States, and CDC, along with state and local health departments, has tracked more than 200 cases of C. auris infection in the country. Our experts have worked with healthcare facilities across the nation to implement infection control measures and stop transmission.
The progress to track and prevent C. auris is just one example of the important work experts from CDC’s National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID) tackled in 2017. Some of the other highlights from the NCEZID 2017 Accomplishments report are described below.
A tremendous year for public health
Summarizing last year’s major efforts was a difficult task. The numbers alone depict a tremendous year for public health. Here are just a few examples. CDC sequenced nearly 45,000 DNA samples by using Advanced Molecular Detection (AMD) technologies. The agency identified more than 1,100 illnesses that were associated with backyard flocks—the highest number ever recorded by CDC in a single year. And the Antibiotic Resistance Lab Network performed more than 12,000 tests to contain the spread of resistant infections, just to name a few accomplishments.
Tracking new and evolving threats
Every day we are learning more about antibiotic resistance, which continues to be among the biggest health concerns in our country. In 2017, CDC took several important steps to combat antibiotic resistance, including rolling out a containment strategy to slow the spread of drug-resistant diseases in healthcare facilities—starting with a single case—and supporting 25 innovators through a CDC pilot project to develop solutions to antibiotic resistance crises.
Understanding the impact
We are also learning more about Zika virus. Zika was often in the headlines in 2016 and 2017, and the mosquito-borne virus continues to be a threat, especially for pregnant women and their fetuses. Last year, CDC experts shed light on a lesser-known effect of Zika virus infection: a link with Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS), an uncommon illness of the nervous system. In 2017, CDC and partners conducted the first case-control study in the Americas that showed evidence linking Zika virus infection and GBS. This was just one of many vector-borne diseases CDC tackled in 2017.
Responding to new outbreaks
As we continued to work on lingering threats like antibiotic resistance and Zika, CDC also responded to new outbreaks in 2017, both at home and abroad. In the United States, we saw a range of illnesses connected to food products—from Salmonella infections linked to papayas to an Escherichia coli outbreak from soy nut butter. For the first time, scientists linked an outbreak of Seoul virus infections to pet rats in the United States, and AMD lab techniques proved critical in tracing this and other outbreaks. CDC scientists traveled across the globe in 2017 to investigate a myriad of outbreaks, including an outbreak of anthrax infections in animals in Namibia that posed a threat to human health. Experts helped respond to yellow fever outbreaks in countries including Brazil, and we continue that work today as the yellow fever outbreak in Brazil has expanded over the past two years and could affect US travelers.
Like CDC’s response to yellow fever outbreaks, much of last year’s work continues in 2018. We are closely tracking emerging infections like C. auris, continuing to study the effects of unusual diseases like Zika, and investigating and containing outbreaks of infections caused by a wide range of microbes such as Salmonella bacteria, monkeypox virus, and hemorrhagic fever viruses.
Want to learn more? Read the full NCEZID 2017 Accomplishments report, and follow NCEZID on Twitter @CDC_NCEZID.
Posted by in advanced molecular detection, Anthrax, antibiotic resistance, candida auris, disease detectives, Disease Investigation, Disease Outbreak, e. coli, Foodborne, Guillain-Barré syndrome, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, public health, Salmonella, Seoul virus, Vectorborne, yellow fever, zika
Antimicrobial resistance: What is it? Why is it a problem? What is being done to stop it?
By Kelly Wroblewski, director, infectious diseases, APHL
Antimicrobial resistance is arguably the most significant public health threat facing the world today. As resistance builds, the threat of severe illness or death from common infections becomes an increasing possibility for everyone.
What is antimicrobial resistance?
Antimicrobial resistance occurs when microbes, including bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites, evolve or adapt to survive exposure to drugs or other treatments designed to kill them. Once the microbes have developed resistance, treatments used against them are rendered useless.
While all types of antimicrobial resistance are extremely concerning, antibiotic resistance – when bacteria become resistant to antibiotics – is often seen as posing the most serious health threat. Why is this?
Compared to other microbes, more bacteria are becoming increasingly resistant to treatment, and resistant bacteria can cause more adverse health outcomes in infected people. Antibiotics are also more commonly used than antiviral, antifungal or antiparasitic drugs.
How did antibiotic resistance become such a big problem?
While many complex issues have led to this urgent situation, three factors stand out:
1. The overuse and misuse of antibiotics in healthcare, agriculture and other aspects of day-to-day life is a significant contributor to antibiotic resistance. Simply stated, every time we use antibiotics inappropriately, we’re helping bacteria figure out how to outsmart and outperform them – to resist Inappropriate use includes taking antibiotics to treat viral infections, starting a course of antibiotics and not completing it, using antibiotics in agriculture to improve livestock survival and crop yields, and the liberal use of over-the-counter antibacterial soaps and ointments.
2. Development of new antibiotics and diagnostic tools to detect resistance has suffered due to a lack of investment. As bacteria develop resistance to existing drugs, scientists must work to develop new antibiotics to treat infections. However, for the past 30 years, antibiotic drug development has been stagnant and the prospects are not promising.
Prior to the drug development phase (bringing drugs to market) is drug discovery, the process of identifying candidate medications and active ingredients. This is a challenging and therefore incredibly expensive endeavor with few economic incentives. For companies that make it to the drug development phase, creating drugs that kill bad bacteria without killing good cells (including the host) is extremely difficult.
3. It is difficult to systemically detect, track and respond to new resistant pathogens and outbreaks without a comprehensive global surveillance system. To slow the spread of resistance, we have to know where to find it and have a plan to stop its spread. Though the United States has acted to counter resistant forms of diseases like TB and gonorrhea, it hasn’t taken a public health approach to diseases commonly found in health care settings like the superbug CRE. Failure to detect and stop the spread of these infections at the community level contributes to increased numbers of resistant infections, poor patient outcomes and increased healthcare costs. What’s more, aggressive detection and response efforts are needed to prevent local outbreaks from becoming pandemics.
What’s being done to slow or stop antimicrobial resistance?
The past few years have brought much needed progress. Finally, the US public health and health care systems have a comprehensive plan to combat this problem and resources to make it happen.
In 2014, the White House released the National Strategy on Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria and President Obama signed an Executive Order directing key federal agencies to take action to combat the rise of antibiotic resistant bacteria. In December 2015, Congress passed a budget providing $375 million to implement this strategy with $161 million going to CDC.
Since then, significant steps have been taken to move the dial in the right direction.
- CDC has distributed approximately $67 million to local and state governments to improve their ability to detect and respond to existing and emerging resistance as well as implement strategies to improve antibiotic stewardship.
- CDC has established the Antimicrobial Resistance Laboratory Network (ARLN) which will provide infrastructure and capacity for seven regional public health laboratories across the country to better identify and characterize some of the most significant antimicrobial resistance threats. In addition, the ARLN will provide resources to all state and several large local public health jurisdictions to improve their CRE surveillance capacity.
- CDC, FDA and NIH have launched a comprehensive campaign aimed at improving antimicrobial stewardship in healthcare and reducing the frequency of antibiotic use in agriculture.
- NIH and the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) launched the Antimicrobial Resistance Diagnostic Challenge, a $20 million prize competition that to stimulate innovation in the development of new, faster diagnostic tools.
- CDC and FDA have collaborated to establish the Antimicrobial Resistance Isolate Bank, a repository of resistant pathogens that will be made available to companies developing new antibiotics and diagnostics.
These are significant and valuable steps forward. As these and future efforts get underway, collaboration across sectors will be critical to success. APHL is committed to supporting members and working closely with partners in the battle against antimicrobial resistance.
Read more:
- Representing Public Health Labs at the White House Forum on Antibiotic Stewardship
- Fighting antimicrobial resistance requires clinical and public health response
- Get Smart: 4 easy ways you can combat antibiotic resistance
- What is APHL doing to combat antimicrobial resistance?
- Laboratory trainings on antimicrobial resistance
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Posted by in All Posts, antibiotic resistance, Antibiotics, antimicrobial resistance, CDC, FDA, get smart, Infectious Diseases, NIH