September 2010

Dear Colleague,

I would like to congratulate our friend, Otto Cars at ReAct, who recently received the 2010 APUA leadership award, and the Mexican APUA chapter, which received the APUA annual chapter award (view details here). ReAct’s leadership on drug resistance has been and continues to be critical to the push to put antimicrobial resistance higher on the global agenda, while APUA-Mexico is spearheading surveillance and legislative conservation efforts in Latin America. 

Please consider registering for the Institute for Drug Resistance’s upcoming (October 4) conference on “Shifting the Paradigms of Drug Resistance” in Worcester, MA. I will be presenting policy recommendations from the Drug Resistance Working Group and discussing the creation of a drug resistance marketplace. The IDR – based at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst-- facilitates, supports and promotes novel, multidisciplinary approaches to the challenges of drug resistance. CGD is working with them to find a home for an R&D marketplace for researchers and funders of drug resistance innovation, as recommended in our Working Group report.

Following news of the NDM-1 superbug popping up around the globe, AMR was a hot topic for the recent WHO South-East Asia regional meeting, held in Bangkok in early September (see press release). NDM-1 has also led to the creation of an antimicrobial use task force in India, which will re-visit current prescribing guidelines and provide a draft revised policy within six weeks.

As most of you probably know, AMR will be the topic for World Health Day on April 7, 2011. Another important event will take place shortly thereafter: from April 10-14, 2011 the Third International Conference for Improving Use of Medicines: Informed Strategies, Effective Policies, Lasting Solutions will be held in Alexandria, Egypt. The conference includes a drug resistance-specific track for the first time. You can learn more about the conference and how to submit an abstract in this month’s guest column. I hope to see you there!

As always, we welcome your thoughts at [email protected].

Regards,

Rachel Nugent
Deputy Director for Global Health
Center for Global Development

ICIUM 2011

The International Conference for Improving Use of Medicines (ICIUM) occurs every seven years to bring together experts on improving medicine use. Drug resistance will be one of the major issues at ICIUM 2011. The goals are: (1) to build an international consensus on effective and innovative interventions for improving medicine use and for scaling up and sustaining successful interventions; and (2) to define a new global research agenda to improve medicines use relevant to current conditions and new developments in international health.

READ MORE

Latest drug resistance research

Drug Resistance in the news
Bacteria (besides TB)
Malaria
HIV
Other

CALL FOR PAPERS

Submit an abstract to the drug resistance track of the Third International Conference on Improving Use of Medicines (April 10-14, 2011, Alexandria, Egypt).

RECENT / UPCOMING Events

  • Peruse presentations from the recent ReAct and Uppsala Universitet sponsored conference on “The Global Need for Effective Antibiotics – moving towards concerted action” in Uppsala, Sweden.
  • Browse a digital library of sessions from September’s annual ICAAC meeting
  • Register by October 1 for the 1st Global Symposium on Health Systems Research (November 16-19, Montreux, Switzerland).
  • Register online now for the 59th Annual ASTMH Meeting (November 3-7, Atlanta, GA).

    • PARTNER RESOURCES

    • Read an Institute of Medicine Report: “Antibiotic Resistance: Implications for Global Health and Novel Intervention Strategies.”
    • APUA report finds moderate to high levels of resistance among commensal bacteria globally – view press release.  
    • Read MMV’s recent take on the challenge of artemisinin resistance.

    About CGD

    CGD is an independent think tank that works to reduce global poverty and inequality by encouraging policy change in the U.S. and other rich countries through rigorous research and active engagement with the policy community.

    More about CGD

    Video

    This short news report summarizes findings of a study in Ethiopia on mass antibiotic use to prevent trachoma and the impact (both short- and longer-term) on drug resistance.