An antibiotic is a type of antimicrobial substance active against bacteria. It is the most important type of antibacterial agent for fighting bacterial infections, and antibiotic medications are widely used in the treatment and prevention of such infections. They may either kill or inhibit the growth of bacteria. A limited number of antibiotics also possess antiprotozoal activity. Antibiotics are not effective against viruses such as the ones which cause the common cold or influenza. Drugs which inhibit growth of viruses are termed antiviral drugs or antivirals. Antibiotics are also not effective against fungi. Drugs which inhibit growth of fungi are called antifungal drugs.
Antimicrobial resistance occurs when microbes evolve mechanisms that protect them from antimicrobials, which are drugs used to treat infections. This resistance affects all classes of microbes, including bacteria, viruses, protozoa, and fungi. Together, these adaptations fall under the AMR umbrella, posing significant challenges to healthcare worldwide. Misuse and improper management of antimicrobials are primary drivers of this resistance, though it can also occur naturally through genetic mutations and the spread of resistant genes.
Klebsiella pneumoniae is a Gram-negative, non-motile, encapsulated, lactose-fermenting, facultative anaerobic, rod-shaped bacterium. It appears as a mucoid lactose fermenter on MacConkey agar.
The Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics (APUA) is a non-profit organization founded in 1981 by Stuart B. Levy (1938–2019), Professor of Medicine at Tufts University and headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. APUA's mission is to strengthen society's defenses against infectious disease by promoting appropriate access and use to antimicrobial agents and controlling antimicrobial resistance on a worldwide basis. APUA has a network of affiliated chapters in over 50 countries, and conducts applied antimicrobial resistance research, education, capacity building and advocacy at the global and grassroots levels.
Multiple drug resistance (MDR), multidrug resistance or multiresistance is antimicrobial resistance shown by a species of microorganism to at least one antimicrobial drug in three or more antimicrobial categories. Antimicrobial categories are classifications of antimicrobial agents based on their mode of action and specific to target organisms. The MDR types most threatening to public health are MDR bacteria that resist multiple antibiotics; other types include MDR viruses, parasites.
Global health is the health of populations in a worldwide context; it has been defined as "the area of study, research, and practice that places a priority on improving health and achieving equity in health for all people worldwide". Problems that transcend national borders or have a global political and economic impact are often emphasized. Thus, global health is about worldwide health improvement, reduction of disparities, and protection against global threats that disregard national borders, including the most common causes of human death and years of life lost from a global perspective.
The Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) is a medical association representing physicians, scientists, and other healthcare professionals who specialize in infectious diseases. It was founded in 1963 and is based in Arlington, Virginia. As of 2018, IDSA had more than 11,000 members from across the United States and nearly 100 other countries on six different continents. IDSA's purpose is to improve the health of individuals, communities, and society by promoting excellence in patient care, education, research, public health, and prevention relating to infectious diseases. It is a 501(c)(6) organization.
Medical microbiology, the large subset of microbiology that is applied to medicine, is a branch of medical science concerned with the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases. In addition, this field of science studies various clinical applications of microbes for the improvement of health. There are four kinds of microorganisms that cause infectious disease: bacteria, fungi, parasites and viruses, and one type of infectious protein called prion.
Antibiotic misuse, sometimes called antibiotic abuse or antibiotic overuse, refers to the misuse or overuse of antibiotics, with potentially serious effects on health. It is a contributing factor to the development of antibiotic resistance, including the creation of multidrug-resistant bacteria, informally called "super bugs": relatively harmless bacteria can develop resistance to multiple antibiotics and cause life-threatening infections.
One Health Trust, formerly the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy, is a public health research organization with offices in Washington, D.C., New Delhi, and Bangalore, India.
Antibiotic use in livestock is the use of antibiotics for any purpose in the husbandry of livestock, which includes treatment when ill (therapeutic), treatment of a group of animals when at least one is diagnosed with clinical infection (metaphylaxis), and preventative treatment (prophylaxis). Antibiotics are an important tool to treat animal as well as human disease, safeguard animal health and welfare, and support food safety. However, used irresponsibly, this may lead to antibiotic resistance which may impact human, animal and environmental health.
The British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (BSAC) is a UK-based multi-professional organisation committed to preventing infectious diseases and tackling the growing threat of drug-resistant infections – one of the one of the top global public health and development threats.
Antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) refers to coordinated efforts to promote the optimal use of antimicrobial agents, including drug choice, dosing, route, and duration of administration. AMS has been an organized effort of specialists in infectious diseases, both in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics with their respective peer-organizations, hospital pharmacists, the public health community and their professional organizations since the late 1990s.
Antibiotic Action is a UK-based initiative that works to raise global awareness about antibiotic resistance, and is funded by the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (BSAC), a UK registered charity. Antibiotic Action seeks to inform and educate people from various backgrounds, ranging from politicians to healthcare professionals to the public, about the need for discovery, research, and development of new treatments for bacterial infections to combat antibiotic resistance. It also aims to strengthen and enhance academic-industrial partnerships by bringing together communities that need antibiotics with academia, health-care professionals, and pharmaceutical companies to address the challenges facing antibiotic research, drug development, and Antimicrobial stewardship.
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) directly kills about 1,600 people each year in Australia. This is a currently serious threat to both humans and animals in the country. Antimicrobial resistance occurs when a microorganism evolves and gains the ability to become more resistant or completely resistant to the medicine that was previously used to treat it. Drug-resistant bacteria are increasingly difficult to treat, requiring replacement or higher-dose drugs that may be more expensive or more toxic. Resistance can develop through one of the three mechanisms: natural resistant ability in some types of microorganisms, a mutation in genes or receiving the resistance from another species. Antibodies appear naturally due to random mutations, or more often after gradual accumulation over time, and because of abuse of antibiotics. Multidrug-resistance, or MDR, are the microorganisms that are resistant to many types of antimicrobials. "Superbugs" is the term also used for multidrug-resistant microbes, or totally drug-resistant (TDR).
The Society of Infectious Diseases Pharmacists (SIDP) is a non-profit organization comprising pharmacists and other allied health professionals specializing in infectious diseases and antimicrobial stewardship. According to the Board of Pharmaceutical Specialties, clinical pharmacists specializing in infectious diseases are trained in microbiology and pharmacology to develop, implement, and monitor drug regimens. These regimens incorporate the pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics of antimicrobials for patients.
Judith Breuer is a British virologist who is professor of virology and director of the Pathogen Genomics Unit at University College London. She was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2019. Breuer is part of the United Kingdom genome sequencing team that looks to map the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019.
Alasdair Macintosh Geddes was a British medical doctor who was Professor of Infection at the University of Birmingham Medical School. In 1978, as the World Health Organization (WHO) was shortly to announce that the world's last case of smallpox had occurred a year earlier in Somalia, Geddes diagnosed a British woman with the disease in Birmingham, England. She was found to be the index case of the outbreak and became the world's last reported fatality due to the disease, five years after he had gained experience on the frontline of the WHO's smallpox eradication programme in Bangladesh in 1973.
The Centre for Genomic Pathogen Surveillance is a computational genomics research institute in Oxfordshire.
