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U.S. Updates Antibiotic Resistance Plan: Here's What's New
The U.S. government released an update to its National Action Plan for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria (NAP CARB), which aims to combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria and subsequent infections. There are more than 2.8 million antibiotic-resistant infections—and 35,000 deaths—in the U.S. each year. Among other things, the Plan aims to slow the growth of resistant bacteria and prevent infections from spreading, strengthen surveillance efforts, and advance development and use of rapid diagnostic tests.
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A Call for Global Monitoring of WASH in Wet Markets
\u0022Regardless of the role wet markets will play in future respiratory virus epidemics, wet markets pose additional zoonotic health risks that must be prioritised by global health researchers and policy makers. Specifically, wet markets could be hotspots for enteric pathogen transmission because of poor and unregulated hygiene conditions. … Building improved wet market infrastructure is urgently needed, particularly in low-resource settings.\u0022 — Levy CIMAR Core Faculty members Drs. Maya Nadimpalli and Amy Pickering
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Center for Antimicrobial Resistance Renamed for Stuart B. Levy
The Center for Integrated Management of Antimicrobial Resistance, a collaborative effort supported by Tufts University and Tufts Medical Center, has been renamed the Stuart B. Levy Center for Integrated Management of Antimicrobial Resistance (Levy CIMAR) at Tufts, in honor of the pioneering antibiotic-resistance researcher. Levy, a professor emeritus of molecular biology and microbiology at Tufts University School of Medicine and a staff physician at Tufts Medical Center, passed away in September 2019 at the age of 80. He retired in 2018 after 47 years at Tufts.
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As a Virus Ravages the World, Antibiotic Makers are in Disarray
COVID-19 can be accompanied by secondary bacterial infections with deadly consequences. But the industry that researches and produces antibiotics to fight such illnesses has been upended — and the pandemic is only making things worse. Now, medical experts worry about the long-term health implications of not having cutting-edge antibiotics in the pharmaceutical pipeline. Per CIMAR Dir. Dr. Helen Boucher: \u0022This need to have a robust and renewable pipeline of antibiotics has really never been greater.
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IDSA, APHA Call on White House to Reverse Handling of COVID-19 Data
A letter sent by the leadership of the Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA) including board member, CIMAR Dir. Dr. Helen Boucher, as well as those from dozens of other organizations calls on the Trump administration to reverse its decision to bypass the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in \u0022the collection and analysis of COVID-19 patient data.\u0022
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New Cell Profiling Method Could Speed TB Drug Discovery
A new technology that combines high throughput imaging and machine learning could speed discovery of drugs to fight tuberculosis, which for generations has killed more people worldwide than any other disease caused by a single agent—4,000 people every day. \u0022We urgently need shorter, more effective TB therapies, and MorphEUS enables us to screen through drug candidates, see how they actually affect the cell, and learn which drugs have unique ways to kill the M. tb,\u0022 says CIMAR’s Dr.Bree Aldridge.
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Dr. Helen Boucher Discusses The COVID19 Infection Curve, What To Expect In Mass.
Nearly 20,000 people have now tested positive for the novel coronavirus in Massachusetts. Well over 500 have died. With the surge in COVID-19 hospitalizations fast approaching in Massachusetts, WBUR’s Weekend Edition joined Dr. Helen Boucher, chief of the Division of Geographic Medicine and Infectious Diseases at Tufts Medical Center, to discuss where we are now on the infection curve and what to expect in the coming weeks.\n\n
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CIMAR and Tufts Medical Center's Dr. Shira Doron Discusses What SARS-CoV2 Antibody Tests Might Reveal
Dr. Shira Doron, Core Faculty Member of CIMAR and hospital epidemiologist at Tufts Medical Center, answers questions about what the hospital is seeing in patients and what antibody tests available may show. She also discusses the anticipated surge in COVID-19 hospitalizations in Massachusetts and more.\n
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CIMAR's Dr. Helen Boucher: Have We Made Progress in the 10 X' 20 Initiative?
Antibiotics make procedures including joint replacement, transplantation, cancer chemotherapy, and premature newborn care possible. Recent reports have warned of the dangerously failing antibiotic pipeline; on January 18, the World Health Organization issued an unprecedented warning, declaring that “only government intervention can fix the broken market for antimicrobial drugs.”
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3 Surprising Traits of How COVID-19 Affects Patients According to Experts
One surprising trait: Patients who seem to be recovering can suddenly crash. CIMAR’s Dr. Gabriela Andujar Vazquez, an infectious disease physician at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, said patients should also watch for chest pain, and advised anyone experiencing chest pain or breathing difficulty to head to the emergency room. \u0022People need to really monitor themselves for the first week. After the first week, you’ll either get better or worse,\u0022 she says.
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How Long Does Coronavirus Live On Clothes? Doctors Weigh In
Most of the time, we can count on our clothes to offer us protection from the outside world. In the midst of the novel coronavirus pandemic, however, it’s easy to see them as a potential threat — particularly if you’re not sure how you should be washing them. If you’ve arrived home from errands concerned about how long coronavirus live on your clothes, it may offer comfort that by staying vigilant, you can safely re-wear favorite pieces and dress how you please.
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Calculations, Concerns, & Crisis: The struggle to find masks and gowns spurs local hospitals to make drastic decisions
CIMAR’s Dr. Shira Doron, an infectious disease physician and epidemiologist at Tufts Medical Center, was exhausted. Minute by minute, the supply numbers changed, donations came in, patient predictions soared. At this rate, if patient numbers doubled daily, staff would run out of masks in a matter of days. If the health system could go through fewer supplies each day, a slower burn rate, maybe they could last a few weeks.