This week marks World Antibiotic Awareness Week (16th-22nd November 2015), the third since its inception in 2013. It had its genesis in the European Antibiotic Awareness Day, which originated on 18th November 2008, as well as the U.S. “Get Smart about Antibiotics” week (originally in October 2008). It serves as a way to increase public awareness […]
A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to meet up with Dr Piotr Chlebicki of Singapore General Hospital (SGH), and we discussed antimicrobial stewardship over a beer (or two). Antimicrobial stewardship – a more nuanced and acceptable term than “antimicrobial control” – refers to any number of interventions in a hospital setting that aims to […]
I went with a small group of colleagues to Dili, Timor-Leste, to teach about appropriate antibiotic prescription for common infectious diseases to doctors from municipal hospitals in Dili, Timor-Leste. This seminar was organised by ReAct – an independent global network for concerted action on antimicrobial resistance based out of Uppsala University in Sweden – and […]
News about the G-7 Leaders’ Summit in Germany was somewhat overshadowed by the news about the South Korea MERS-CoV outbreak, at least in this part of the world. However, antimicrobial resistance was on the agenda, and can be found in the joint declaration by the leaders of G-7. The Annex to the Declaration can be found […]
Managed to attend more talks today. The morning plenary was delivered by Prof Hsueh Po Ren from Taipei, Taiwan, who described in detail the escalating threat of antimicrobial resistance in the Asia-Pacific region. The quality of the photos is poor (taken using an iPhone 5!), given the dim lighting during the talks. The subsequent keynote […]
Antimicrobial stewardship generally refers to hospital-based programs that attempt to improve the use of antimicrobial agents. These programs have arisen in large part because of the growing problem of antimicrobial resistance, and the sad (but entirely logical) recognition that antibiotic prescription guidelines are insufficient for improving antibiotic use and often poorly implemented. Appropriate antibiotic prescription […]
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