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Antibiotics cannot cure COVID. They don’t help a bit. And yet, new data shows that, during the pandemic, COVID patients were given antibiotics – a lot of antibiotics. That’s bad because the overuse of antibiotics can breed superbugs that are resistant to medications. The impact of this pandemic overuse has lingered even as the pandemic has faded. So how did this unfortunate turn of events come to be? A series of new reports and papers shed light. Globally, about 75% of patients hospitalized with COVID were given antibiotics, despite only 8% having a bacterial coinfection where antibiotics would be medically useful. This comes from new data published in late April that was collected through the World Health Organization’s Global Clinical Platform in 65 countries between January 2020 and March 2023.

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People are in such close contact with their dogs, cats, and other pets that research shows they often share flora, or tiny bacteria and other microorganisms that inhabit the skin, gut, and even the environment of the home. If you or your pet take an antibiotic or another antimicrobial medication, it can potentially change the flora you both carry. And if your pet is carrying antimicrobial resistant bacteria, which may lessen the efficacy of prescribed medications, you may be, too. Small-animal veterinarians at the Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine are leading nationwide efforts to understand antimicrobial stewardship and resistance in companion animals.\n\n

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The rod-shaped tuberculosis (TB) bacterium, which the World Health Organization has once again ranked as the top infectious disease killer globally, is the first single-celled organism ever observed to maintain a consistent growth rate throughout its life cycle. These findings, reported by Tufts University School of Medicine researchers on November 15 in the journal Nature Microbiology, overturn core beliefs of bacterial cell biology and hint at why the deadly pathogen so readily outmaneuvers our immune system and antibiotics.  “The most basic thing you can study in bacteria is how they grow and divide, yet our study reveals that the TB pathogen is playing by a completely different set of rules compared to easier-to-study model organisms,” says CIMAR’s Bree Aldridge, PhD, a professor of Molecular Biology and Microbiology and of Biomedical Engineering at Tufts University and an author of the paper.

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In 2021 alone, drug-resistant bacterial pathogens contributed to 4.71 million global deaths and were directly responsible for 1.14 million of those. And although these tolls were down slightly from 2019, researchers forecast a nearly 70% increase in the number of annual deaths directly attributable to AMR by midcentury, reaching 1.91 million in 2050. More than 39 million people, they predict, will die from antibiotic-resistant infections over the next 25 years. CIMAR’s Helen Boucher, MD, Dean of the Tufts University School of Medicine, has had the “sad duty” of treating patients affected by AMR, from an otherwise healthy young mother whose urinary tract infection ended up requiring a weeks-long hospital stay to a patient with heart failure whose bacterial infection wasn’t treatable.

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Probiotics have been touted as a treatment for everything from diarrhea to mental health disorders, with sales of probiotic supplements expected to exceed $65 billion globally in 2024.  Plenty of consumers swear by probiotics, but there is little conclusive evidence that unequivocally supports their effectiveness for any particular health issue, and some Tufts experts agree that while ongoing research into probiotics is promising, more large-scale studies are needed before they can strongly recommend them. There is some evidence that probiotics can be useful for certain digestive issues, including lactose intolerance, C.Difficile infections, and a form of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) called pouchitis. But evidence for many of the other claims is currently scant or nonexistent. When probiotics have the desired outcome, it’s not always clear how or why, according to CIMAR’s Ben Wolfe, PhD, an associate professor of biology at the School of Arts and Sciences.

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Lab Science Investigations (LSI) is a two-week hands-on summer research experience at Tufts for high school students. It’s also an interdisciplinary program that raises awareness of the growing problem of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), a partnership between centers and schools across Tufts, and a collaborative learning group of people of different ages, academic levels, experiences, cultures, and perspectives. Best of all, it’s a lot of fun. Nicole Ma, a junior at North Quincy High School, attended LSI this summer. She said she would highly recommend the program to other science-interested high schoolers. “I would tell them, definitely go,” she said. “It’s a great experience. You’ll learn a lot and you’ll probably miss it when it’s over.”

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Joined by leaders of global organisations including the World Health Organization (WHO), the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), and the World Bank as well as pressure groups and civil society organisations, these premiers are in New York to address a single theme – antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The main goal will be the agreement of a political declaration, developed over the past months, which sets out the scope of the AMR challenge, not only for human health but also for animals and plants, and the consequences for equitable global development, the economy, food safety and security.

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Following instructions provided by a patient insert can also help combat antimicrobial resistance—when antimicrobial drugs become ineffective to treat pathogens like fungi or bacteria. To prevent antimicrobial resistance as a consumer, make sure to take antibiotic medications only when they’ve been prescribed to you. “Don’t take the drugs that have been prescribed for your family members, or give drugs prescribed for one child to another,” Beninger said. Ensure that you complete a course of antibiotics that has been prescribed—even if you’re feeling better.

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Widespread antibiotic prescribing contributes to globally emerging antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Despite stewardship recommendations by the Infectious Diseases Society of America, there is a lack of literature identifying barriers and facilitators to antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASPs) in United States (U.S.) carceral settings. People with criminal-legal experience—a term used to describe persons who are either currently incarcerated or have been incarcerated—are at increased risk for several infectious diseases (e.g., methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), pneumococcal disease, meningococcus). Two former CIMAR Summer Scholars and several CIMAR members contributed to this publication.

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NEJM presents an interview with Dr. Revati Masilamani, Program Lead for CIMAR’s Laboratory Science Investigations summer course for high schoolers, on a multitiered mentoring program aimed at supporting pathways to biomedical careers for students from diverse backgrounds. Tufts’ STEM+M Connect program uses multitiered near-peer mentoring to help students navigate key academic transition points by building career awareness, a sense of belonging, and social networks.