April 2010

Dear Colleague,

In this month’s guest column, you will find an introduction to the International Pharmaceutical Federation highlighting its concerns about drug resistance and lending support to the DRWG’s recommendation to strengthen developing country drug prescribing and dispensing practice.  This and the other CGD recommendations will be described in the DRWG final report, coming out on June 15.

Readers based or working in sub-Saharan Africa may be interested to learn that the International Society of Chemotherapy's Antimicrobial Stewardship Working Group is establishing a sub-Saharan Network of interested physicians and researchers to develop an electronic registry of interventions on stewardship and resistance.  This network will be launched in August 2010.  If you are interested in joining the Network or learning more, please email Jim Hutchinson or Gabriel Levy Hara.

Finally, I invite you to listen to a popular National Public Radio show in the United States, Science Friday, which recently featured the topic of antimicrobial resistance with Stuart Levy of APUA and other experts.

As always, we welcome your thoughts at [email protected].
 
Regards,
 
Rachel Nugent
Deputy Director for Global Health
Center for Global Development

Q&A DISCUSSION WITH FIP

CGD consultant Alix Beith interviewed Ton Hoek (FIP General Secretary and CEO) and Xuan Hao Chan (FIP Manager for Public Health Partnerships)

Founded in 1912, the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) is the global federation of national associations of pharmacists and pharmaceutical scientists. It has official status on their behalf at the World Health Organisation (WHO). Through its 122 Member Organisations, FIP represents and serves almost two million pharmacy practitioners and scientists around the world.

1. Can you please briefly describe what FIP is and how it works?  What do you feel are its major strengths in developing countries? 
As the global Federation representing the world’s pharmacists and pharmaceutical scientists, FIP  works with pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and medicine dispensers to promote good health and the well being of citizens, while also building community capacity to address the social determinants of health and common behavioural risk factors for the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases.

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LATEST DRUG RESISTANCE RESEARCH

• Unplanned antiretroviral treatment interruptions in southern Africa: how should we be managing these? (Globalization and Health, N. Veenstra et al)
• Long‐Term Probability of Detecting Drug‐Resistant HIV in Treatment‐Naive Patients Initiating Combination Antiretroviral Therapy (Clinical Infectious Diseases, The UK Collaborative Group on HIV Drug Resistance and UK CHIC Study Group.  Abstract only)
• Antiretroviral Drug Resistance in HIV‐1‐Infected Patients with Low‐Level Viremia (Journal of Infectious Diseases, NE. Mackie et al.  Abstract only)
• Rapid Selection of Oseltamivir‐ and Peramivir‐Resistant Pandemic H1N1 Virus during Therapy in 2 Immunocompromised Hosts (Clinical Infectious Diseases, M Memoli et al.  Abstract only)
• Targeting pandemic influenza: a primer on influenza antivirals and drug resistance (Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, R.B. Moss.  Abstract only)
  
  

IN THE NEWS

• The risk of multi-resistant gonorrhea (MSNBC)
• Antibacterial in soap under review (CBC) 

• New good news and bad news on TB resistance (Newswise)

Malaria

• World Malaria Day 2010: concerns once again surface about how long the anti-malarials we have are likely to remain effective (Daily News and Economic Review)
  

Other

• Time to tackle non-therapeutic use of antibiotics in animals (New York Times)
• An explosion of superbugs in China (Telegraph.co.uk)
• Fast H1N1 flu resistance development (MSNBC)
• Concerns about antibiotics in meat and milk in the UAE (Gulfnew.com)

PARTNER RESOURCES

• Peruse the recently-released fourth edition of WHO Guidelines for surveillance of drug resistance in tuberculosis

RECENT/UPCOMING EVENTS

• Join Rachel, DRWG member Kevin Outterson, and noted drug resistance expert Ramanan Laxminarayan in an upcoming discussion on "Drug Resistance: A Global Challenge to Disease Control and Eradication" at Resources for the Future on 5 May
• View the final program and abstracts from the 14th International Congress on Infectious Diseases (9 – 12 March in Miami)
• Submit an abstract to the 48th Annual IDSA meeting (21 – 24 October in Vancouver) before the 19 May deadline           
• Submit an abstract by 4 May for the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene Annual Meeting (3 – 7 November in Atlanta)
  
  

Call for papers

• Download a preliminary announcement for the Third International Conference on Improving Use of Medicines (10 – 14 April 2011 in Alexandria, Egypt)

RESISTANCE RELATED JOBS

• Consider applying for a Pharmaceutical Management Advisor position within the USAID Global Health Fellows Program – deadline is 3 May
  
  

VIDEO

• View how medical research and care-giving communities mobilized in South Africa through the Stop TB Partnership raise awareness and treat TB and MDR-TB in Khayelitsha, Cape Town