The Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy

Weekly digest: Resistance in India’s largest city, the evolution of bacterial mutation rates, and antiseptic-resistant MRSA

Andrea Titus — Fri, 25 May 2012 18:29:37 +0000

Author:

Andrea Titus

Post Thumbnail:

A round-up of news on drug resistance and other topics in global health.

A cover story in the Mumbai Mirror examines the menace of antibiotic resistant infections in India’s most populous city.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) releases a video on antimicrobial resistance in zoonotic bacteria.

Malaria Control: Progress, Promise, and Perils

Andrea Titus — Wed, 23 May 2012 20:40:43 +0000

Author:

Dana G. Dalrymple

Post Thumbnail:

artemisia_annua.jpg

Curiously, two of the main themes that characterize current global malaria control efforts are foreshadowed in famous quotations from 19^th century literature. Charles Dickens in his Tale of Two Cities famously wrote “It was the best of times and the worst of times.” The Red Queen in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland counseled Alice that “it takes all the running you can do to keep in the same place" and “If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that.”

CDC Environmental Public Health Tracking Network Evaluation

Andrea Titus — Fri, 18 May 2012 19:31:47 +0000

Teaser:

Has the data from the CDC's Environmental Public Health Tracking Network led to improved public health practice and outcomes?

Researcher(s):

Laxminarayan, Ramanan

Nandi, Arindam

Colson, Abigail

Regmi, Sudha

Cover Image:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) established the Environmental Public Health Tracking Program (Tracking Program) in 2002, responding to the need for a central body which would facilitate the collection and analysis of data on noninfectious diseases and integrate the information to understand the linkages between the environment and public health.

Weekly digest: Antibiotics in ethanol, azithromycin and cardiac risk, and the ticking time bomb of resistant gonorrhea

Andrea Titus — Fri, 18 May 2012 18:01:43 +0000

Author:

Andrea Titus

Post Thumbnail:

ethanol.jpg

A round-up of news on drug resistance and other topics in global health.

Consultant (individual or agency), Fundraising and Business Development

Andrea Titus — Thu, 17 May 2012 18:06:29 +0000

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS - FUNDRAISING CONSULTING SERVICES

Background and History

Visualization series: Per capita antibiotic use has decreased in Canada, the United States, and France, 2000-2010

Andrea Titus — Wed, 16 May 2012 19:48:46 +0000

Author:

Andrea Titus

Post Thumbnail:

abxprescribing_us_can_france.png

A glimmer of hope amid pronouncements that we are on a path to a "post-antibiotic era:" in some countries, antibiotic prescribing is actually going down. We've known since the advent of antibiotics that exposure to the drugs drives the development of resistance in bacteria. We also know that many antibiotic prescriptions are inappropriate - read more

Per capita antibiotic use has decreased in Canada, the United States, and France, 2000-2010

Andrea Titus — Wed, 16 May 2012 15:33:06 +0000

Tool Type:

Graphic

Tool Image:

Display Tool Image?:

Yes

This graphic shows per capita antibiotic use levels in Canada, the United States, and France, 2000 - 2010. Levels in all three countries, measured in standard units and adjusted for population growth, decreased over the time period.

Attached Files:

Download this tool

DCP3: Distribution of Economic Burden and Measurement Issues in Choosing Equity

Andrea Titus — Tue, 15 May 2012 14:01:24 +0000

Event Date:

Wed, 06/06/2012 - 9:00am - Fri, 06/08/2012 - 5:00pm

Event Image:

Display Event Image?:

Yes

The objective of the Disease Control Priorities Network (DCPN) is to produce definitive technical publications to inform national level and global level health policy-making, on the basis of extensive analytical work and consultations with technical experts and policy-makers from around the world.

Venue

Venue Name:

The Beacon Hotel and Resources for the Future

Address:

June 6 - The Beacon Hotel - 1615 Rhode Island Avenue, Northwest, Washington, DC 20036 June 7-8 - Resources for the Future, 1st floor conference room - 1616 P Street Northwest, Washington, DC 20036

Times of India picks up data visualization on carbapenem sales in India, Pakistan

Andrea Titus — Mon, 14 May 2012 16:19:52 +0000

Author:

Andrea Titus

Post Thumbnail:

india_pharmacy.jpg

In "Indians popping more antibiotics than ever: Study," reporter Kounteya Sinha unpacks a graphic on carbapenem sales released as part of CDDEP's data visualization series. The graphic (reproduced below) shows a rapid increase in carbapanem antibiotic sales in India and Pakistan between 2005 and 2010. These trends are conc

Weekly digest: Emerging resistance in India, HAI seasonality in neonates, and nanoparticle antibiotic delivery systems

Andrea Titus — Fri, 11 May 2012 18:20:44 +0000

Author:

Andrea Titus

Post Thumbnail:

india3.jpg

A round-up of news on drug resistance and other topics in global health.

Keith Klugman on the Drug Resistance Index (DRI) for Emory Public Health Magazine

Andrea Titus — Mon, 07 May 2012 17:40:58 +0000

Author:

Andrea Titus

Post Thumbnail:

resistance_index.png

The Spring 2012 edition of Emory's Public Health Magazine features an article on Keith Klugman and the first-ever drug resistance index (DRI). Much like a stock market or consumer price index, the DRI aggregates and weights available data to produce a single measure that can be examined over time - in this case the index represents the burden of resistance in a hospital or geographical area. Why create this read more

Weekly digest: S. pneumoniae in China, seagulls as resistance vectors, and chronicling the history of drug resistant Gonorrhea

Andrea Titus — Fri, 04 May 2012 18:16:37 +0000

Author:

Andrea Titus

Post Thumbnail:

seagull.jpg

A round-up of news on drug resistance and other topics in global health.

A study in Diagnostic Microbiology and Infectious Disease finds a sharp rise in penicillin-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae in teaching hospitals in China.

The pneumococcal disease burden is high in parts of the developing world

Andrea Titus — Fri, 04 May 2012 14:44:33 +0000

Tool Type:

Graphic

Tool Image:

Display Tool Image?:

Yes

Pneumococcal disease is a leading cause of death for children under 5, particularly in developing countries. Using data from a 2000 WHO study, this graph shows the number of deaths per 100,000 children under 5 attributable to invasive pneumococcal disease, across six countries.

read more

CDDEP Newsletter: May 2012

Andrea Titus — Wed, 02 May 2012 17:43:53 +0000

The Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy

read more

Using a drug resistance index (DRI) to track antibiotic effectiveness: evidence from one Indian hospital

Andrea Titus — Tue, 01 May 2012 19:06:06 +0000

Author:

Nikolay Braykov

Post Thumbnail:

abx_dri.jpg

Sir Ganga Ram Hospital (SGRH), one of New Delhi’s top medical facilities, is now using a Drug Resistance Index (DRI) to summarize trends in the effectiveness of antibiotics prescribed in the hospital. An index for four common infections treated between 2009 and 2011 is featured in SGRH’s April microbiological newsletter (page 7).
read more

Weekly digest: Anti-inflammatories help clear infections, vaccines roll out in Ghana, and PDUFA considers antibiotic prizes

Andrea Titus — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 18:28:21 +0000

Author:

Andrea Titus

Post Thumbnail:

pneumovx.jpg

A round-up of news on drug resistance and other topics in global health.

A study in Nature finds that anti-inflammatories can lessen the antibiotic dose needed to clear infections in mice.
read more

Visualization series: The operational feasibility of malaria elimination - where to start?

Andrea Titus — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 19:31:39 +0000

Author:

Andrea Titus

Post Thumbnail:

malariaeliminationranking.png

We put together an extra visualization this week, to coincide with World Malaria Day. The following bubble plot takes data from a recent Lancet paper to show a relative ranking of the feasibility of malaria elimination, from an operational perspective. As always, you can download this graphic from the Tools section of our website.
read more

The operational feasibility of malaria elimination: Where to start?

Andrea Titus — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 19:14:13 +0000

Tool Type:

Graphic

Tool Image:

Display Tool Image?:

Yes

Publications:

Ranking of elimination feasibility between malaria-endemic countries

The feasibility of eliminating malaria differs among countries because of differences in the technical challenges, measured in terms of malaria endemicity and importation rate, and operational capabilities, measured in terms of government stability and effectiveness, quality and development of health systems, and factors associated with the population at risk. The forty circles graphically represent a relative ranking of operational feasibility for eliminating P. falciparum malaria.

Attached Files:

Download this tool

read more

Malaria resurgence: a systematic review and assessment of its causes

Andrea Titus — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 17:28:12 +0000

Publication Type:

Article

Featured:

Yes

Contributors

Author(s):

Cohen, Justin M.

Smith, David L.

Cotter, Chris

Ward, Abigail

Yamey, Gavin

Sabot, Oliver

Moonen, Bruno

Malaria Journal

Details

Tue, 04/24/2012

Display Date:

April 2012

Number:

11

Volume:

122

cohensmithmalariaresurg2012maljnlcover.jpg

Downloadable PDF:

cohensmithmalariaresurg2012maljnl1.pdf

http://www.malariajournal.com/content/11/1/122/abstract

Abstract:

Background
Considerable declines in malaria have accompanied increased funding for control since the year 2000, but historical failures to maintain gains against the disease underscore the fragility of these successes. Although malaria transmission can be suppressed by effective control measures, in the absence of active intervention malaria will return to an intrinsic equilibrium determined by factors related to ecology, efficiency of mosquito vectors, and socioeconomic characteristics. Understanding where and why resurgence has occurred historically can help current and future malaria control programmes avoid the mistakes of the past.
Methods
A systematic review of the literature was conducted to identify historical malaria resurgence events. All suggested causes of these events were categorized according to whether they were related to weakened malaria control programmes, increased potential for malaria transmission, or technical obstacles like resistance.
Results
The review identified 75 resurgence events in 61 countries, occurring from the 1930s through the 2000s. Almost all resurgence events (68/75 = 91%) were attributed at least in part to the weakening of malaria control programmes for a variety of reasons, of which resource constraints were the most common (39/68 = 57%). Over half of the events (44/75 = 59%) were attributed in part to increases in the intrinsic potential for malaria transmission, while only 24/75 (32%) were attributed to vector or drug resistance.
Conclusions
Given that most malaria resurgences have been linked to weakening of control programmes, there is an urgent need to develop practical solutions to the financial and operational threats to effectively sustaining today’s successful malaria control programmes.

Malaria resurgence is linked to weakening of malaria control programs

Andrea Titus — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 17:16:59 +0000

Author:

Andrea Titus

Post Thumbnail:

malariastamp.jpg

A new study in Malaria Journal surveys the literature to determine why and where resurgences in malaria occur. CDDEP's David Smith, Senior Fellow and Associate Director for Research, participated in the study, which is timed with the annual World Malaria Day on April 25th. The article is available online (open access) and the press release is copied below. You can also read coverage of the work in BMJ (subscription required).
read more