LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Antibiotics: Resistances
built 647 days ago
The Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics (APUA) was founded as a non-profit global organization in 1981. APUA’s mission is to strengthen society’s defenses against infectious disease by promoting appropriate antimicrobial access and use and controlling antimicrobial resistance on a worldwide basis. With affiliated chapters in over 60 countries, many in the developing world. APUA stands as the world’s leading global organization conducting antimicrobial resistance research, education, capacity building and advocacy at the global and grassroots levels.
Source:
The new Pharmacor report entitled Community-Acquired Pneumonia finds that in 2006 antibiotics generated more than $800 million while the pneumococcal vaccines garnered approximately $1.5 billion in sales in the major pharmaceutical markets. Decision Resources forecasts that the hospital segment of the community-acquired pneumonia market will experience considerable growth, driven by rising resistance rates that will encourage the uptake of novel products. However, growth in the outpatient market will be limited over the next decade given its maturity, increased availability of generic agents and the upcoming patent expiry of products such as Johnson & Johnson's Levaquin. The launch of vaccines in late-stage development from GlaxoSmithKline and Wyeth expand upon the serotype coverage of Wyeth's blockbuster vaccine, Prevnar, and will drive growth in the pneumococcal vaccine market.
Source:
The ability of plants to absorb antibiotics raises the potential for contamination of human food supply. However, Satish Gupta, group leader notes “The adverse impacts of consuming plants that contain small quantities of antibiotics are largely unknown”. Consumption of antibiotics in plants may cause allergic reactions in sensitive populations, such as young children. There is ... concern that consuming antibiotics may lead to the development of antimicrobial resistance, which can render antibiotics ineffective.
Source:
Use or misuse of antibiotics may result in the development of antibiotic resistance by the infecting organisms, similar to the development of pesticide resistance in insects. Evolutionary theory of genetic selection requires that as close as possible to 100% of the infecting organisms be killed off to avoid selection of resistance; if a small subset of the population survives the treatment and is allowed to multiply, the average susceptibility of this new population to the compound will be much less than that of the original population, since they have descended from those few organisms that survived the original treatment. This survival often results from an inheritable resistance to the compound that was infrequent in the original population, but became more frequent in the descendants.
Source:
Many existing classes of antibiotics, including those used to treat both community- and hospital-acquired infections, are known to function by targeting the 50S. Among the classes of antibiotics that act this way are macrolides, the ketolides and the oxazolidinones that contribute more than $3 billion to the annual antibiotic marketplace. Zithromax and Zyvox are examples of two such antibiotics. The in-depth knowledge of the 50S structure provides Rib-X scientists an unprecedented, proprietary understanding of exactly how these important classes of antibiotics bind to the ribosome and why they block its function. Rib-X is using these insights to design novel molecules that will overcome the resistance of pathogenic bacteria to existing classes of antibiotics, which is a serious threat to public health.
Source:
Combinations of antibiotics are sometimes needed to treat severe infections, particularly in the first days when the bacterium's sensitivity to antibiotics is not known. Combinations are ... important for certain infections in which the bacterium rapidly develops resistance to a single antibiotic. Infections caused by more than one bacterium, in which each bacterium is susceptible to a different antibiotic, are also treated with a combination of antibiotics.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Resistances