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Plotting the End of Lyme Disease: Tufts Researchers Lead the Cutting Edge of Fighting this Mysterious Illness
As people weary of being cooped up during a pandemic winter look forward to a summer outside, residents across the northeastern United States are once again confronted with a familiar virulent pathogen lurking in the woods and fields. Unlike coronavirus, however, this dangerous microorganism doesn’t float through the air—it enters the body through the bite of a tick. Lyme disease has been a constant scourge since it was identified five decades ago on the Connecticut coastline, before spreading across the New England and Mid-Atlantic states. Several Levy CIMAR are involved in the fight against Lyme including Senior Leadership Members Drs. David Snydman and John Leong.
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2021 Sanctae Crucis Recipients Honored for Leadership During Pandemic
Last week, the College of the Holy Cross presented seven alumni with Sanctae Crucis Awards for their extraordinary commitment and leadership in critical fields throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. The Sanctae Crucis Award is the highest non-degree accolade that the College bestows on alumni. The awards have been presented annually since 1998 to alumni who have distinguished themselves professionally and in the service of their community. Among the awardees is Levy CIMAR Director Dr. Helen Boucher, Chief of Infectious Diseases at Tufts Medical Center. She graduated from Holy Cross in 1986 prior to attending the University of Texas Medical School in Houston.
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Antibiotic Development, Stewardship Advocates See Window of Opportunity
The pandemic isn’t over yet, but with more and more Americans getting vaccinated against COVID-19 and the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel becoming a little brighter every day—at least in the United States—many clinicians, scientists, and public health advocates are calling for renewed attention to an infectious disease threat that was in the spotlight before the pandemic arrived. Prior to the pandemic, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) was considered one of the major looming health threats facing the world, if not the looming threat. But over the past year, COVID-19, and its multifaceted impact on society, has pushed AMR further back on the agenda, both for the public and policy makers.
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Preventing the Next Public Health Crisis of AMR Can Define Biden’s Legacy
In this guest column, Levy CIMAR Director Dr. Helen Boucher says, \u0022The Biden administration’s plan to defeat the coronavirus is underway – and notably includes intentions to ‘build better preparedness for future threats.’ This detailed guidance could not have come at a better time. While we are making progress against the current pandemic, we remain in the midst of a worsening health crisis posed by antibiotic resistance. Deadly bacteria, commonly known as ‘superbugs,’ are evolving to resist even our strongest antibiotics, and we’re not even close to developing enough new treatments to keep pace.\u0022
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Doctors’ Group Says Antibiotics Can Be Taken for Shorter Periods
Millions of Americans have at some point in their lives gotten a long course of antibiotics to treat a bacterial infection. But according to new recommendations from a major U.S. doctors’ group, some of the most common bacterial infections can now be treated with shorter courses of the drugs. The advice, from the American College of Physicians (ACP), says that for several types of infections, shorter courses of antibiotics do the job — and even do it more safely. \u0022Antibiotics can be lifesaving, but like any medication, they have side effects,\u0022 says Levy CIMAR Director Dr. Helen Boucher.
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NIH Awards Grants to Support Bacteriophage Therapy Research
The NIH has awarded $2.5 million in grants to 12 institutes around the world to support research on bacteriophage therapy. Boston-based PhagePro, Inc. and Principal Investigators Minmin Yen and the Levy CIMAR’s Andrew Camilli were among the recipients named. These awards represent NIAID’s first series of grants focused exclusively on research on this therapy, an emerging field that could yield new ways to fight antimicrobial-resistant bacteria. A 2019 report from CDC found that antibiotic-resistant pathogens cause more than 2.8 million infections in the U.S. each year and more than 35,000 people die.
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Levy CIMAR Joins Forces with Filmmakers for ‘Beating Superbugs’ Documentary and Panel World Premiere
\u0022The pandemic has forced keen awareness of a topic that most people would rather not talk about,\u0022 says Beating Superbugs: How Can We Win? filmmaker Bill Mudge. \u0022Most importantly, we emphasize real solutions rather than feeding an all too pervasive crisis fatigue. Regardless, there’s nothing quick, cheap, or easy about containing superbugs but it definitely can be done.\u0022 You can now watch this timely film and panel event, featuring several experts including our own Dr. Helen Boucher, as well asa our affiliate member Dr. Muhammad Zaman, from your mobile devices, computers, or TVs on Vimeo.
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Tufts Medical Center Begins Administering Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 Vaccine
Tufts Medical Center in Boston began administering the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine Thursday, giving Massachusetts a third vaccination option in its push to get more shots in arms. The Levy CIMAR’s Helen Boucher, Chief of Infectious Diseases at Tufts Medical Center, urged vaccinated residents to continue to keep their guard up to protect themselves and others.\u0022I encourage people as good citizens and good Americans to continue to wear their masks,\u0022 she said. Watch the full story on WHDH online.
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Facing the Crisis of Drug-Resistant Germs: An Expert Panel Hosted by STAT News
The COVID-19 pandemic has shown what happens when we let our guard down against infectious disease, despite years of increasingly loud warnings. So it’s time to be even more worried about antibiotic-resistant germs. What policy steps can fight this growing problem? Recently STAT convened policymakers, researchers, and corporate executives to chart a path to progress. Levy CIMAR Director Helen W. Boucher M.D., Chief of Division of Geographic Medicine and Infectious Diseases at Tufts Medical Center, joined the discussion.
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Antibiotic Resistance: A Call to Action to Prevent the Next Epidemic of Inequality
The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the deadly impacts of structural racism and systemic health inequalities on racial and ethnic minorities in the USA. Black and Hispanic/Latinx populations have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19, accounting for nearly half of the cases and 37% of the deaths so far, despite making up less than a third of the US population. This stark imbalance has highlighted the need to examine the role of racial and ethnic disparities in shaping health outcomes, particularly with respect to Antimicrobial Resistance, say Levy CIMAR’s Drs. Maya Nadimpalli and Shira Doron.
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With Ticks Spreading Across the Country, the CDC Says There May Be Nearly Half a Million Cases of Lyme Annually
Between 2010 and 2018, the U.S. had approximately 476,000 cases of Lyme disease every year, according to the CDC. That number is substantially higher than the CDC’s previous estimates, of about 300,000 annual Lyme cases. Linden Hu, MD, of the Tufts Lyme Disease Initiative, notes that the true number of cases of Lyme disease probably varies widely from one year to the next based on changes in tick density in different areas, weather patterns, and more. Still, he says, \u0022there certainly are a lot of cases, and based on the spread of tick range, and things like that, we do anticipate that there’s an upward trend.\u0022
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Levy CIMAR’s Amy Pickering Joins Berkeley Faculty
Amy Pickering, PhD, has joined the faculty at UC Berkeley as Assistant Professor in Development Engineering, a joint Blum Center-College of Engineering appointment made possible through a generous gift from Richard C. Blum and an anonymous donor. There, she is also the Blum Center Distinguished Chair in Global Poverty and Practice. Pickering, formerly a Tiampo Family Assistant Professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering at Tufts University and a distinguished member of the Levy CIMAR, is now a Levy CIMAR Affiliate Member as of January 2021.