|
Dear Colleague,
This month we have all closely followed the circumstances around the A(H1N1) virus. As of 11 May, according to the World Health Organization, 41 countries had officially reported 10,243 cases of influenza infection; see actual figures. While the situation appears to be considerably less dire than was originally feared, the events of the past few weeks have drawn attention to the critical nature of global cooperation in the fight against any future pandemic. As argued in a recent blog by CGD colleague, Mead Over, when preparing for a flu epidemic widespread collective action on surveillance is critical.
Luckily, we have effective agents to treat those infected with this new flu strain - at least for now. But as people stockpile flu treatments and drugs are consumed once the slightest sniffle appears, concerns of resistance emergence come to light. There are understandable arguments for developing strategies to control and limit drug use (see BBC news story), and for adopting a multi-drug strategy.
On April 17, we also witnessed the launch of the Affordable Medicines Facility malaria (AMFM). While the AMFm is a laudable effort - established to get needed anti-malarials to people at affordable prices - its establishment has also raised apprehension about increased malaria parasite resistance emergence to ACTs. We share these concerns, described in a recent Lancet editorial.
As always, we welcome your thoughts at [email protected].
Regards,
Rachel Nugent
Deputy Director for Global Health
Center for Global Development
Lessons from WHONET: The Interdependence of Surveillance, Sustainable Essential Microbiology and Patient Care
By Thomas F. O'Brien and John M. Stelling, WHONET
WHONET is based in the Department of Medicine and World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Surveillance of Antimicrobial Resistance, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA. We have been working for three decades to develop and distribute software to support the WHO goal of multilevel global surveillance of antimicrobial resistance. Our software and its data conversion utility, WHONET 5.4 and BACLINK 2 respectively, may be downloaded at no cost from a WHO website.
These tools enable any microbiology laboratory to put its test results into a database and conduct analyses to support local infection control and antibiotic use. Laboratories can also upload files created by WHONET, to feed into national or other multi-center surveillance networks and to inform drug policy.
READ MORE
IN THE NEWS
Bacteria (Besides TB)
TB
Malaria
HIV
|
Featured VIDEO
latest research
PARTNER RESOURCES
RECENT/UPCOMING EVENTS
CALL FOR PAPERS
- Round 3 of the Gates Foundation’s Grand Challenges Explorations is about to close grant proposals are being accepted until May 28, 2009. New topics include 1) creating low-cost diagnostics for priority global health conditions and 2) creating new ways to induce mucosal immunity
|
