The Core Elements of Outpatient Antibiotic Stewardship provides a framework for antibiotic stewardship for outpatient clinicians and facilities that routinely provide antibiotic treatment. This report augments existing guidance for other clinical se...ttings. In 2014 and 2015, respectively, CDC released the Core Elements of Hospital Antibiotic Stewardship Programs and the Core Elements of Antibiotic Stewardship for Nursing Homes. Antibiotic stewardship is the effort to measure and improve how antibiotics are prescribed by clinicians and used by patients. Improving antibiotic prescribing involves implementing effective strategies to modify prescribing practices to align them with evidence-based recommendations for diagnosis and management.
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Nosocomial infections, or hospital-acquired infec-tions (HAI), are among the most significant causesof morbidity and mortality in healthcare settingsthroughout the world.Prevention of HAIs iscentral... to providing high quality and safe health-care, even in settings with limited resources.Transmission of infectious agents between patientsby health workers and irrational use of antibioticsare two important preventable factors involved inmany HAIs.
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Of the 50 antibiotics in the pipeline, 32 target WHO priority pathogens but the majority have only limited benefits when compared to existing antib...iotics. Two of these are active against the multi-drug resistant Gram-negative bacteria, which are spreading rapidly and require urgent solutions.
Gram-negative bacteria, such as Klebsiella pneumoniae and Escherichia coli, can cause severe and often deadly infections that pose a particular threat for people with weak or not yet fully developed immune systems, including newborns, ageing populations, people undergoing surgery and cancer treatment.
The report highlights a worrying gap in activity against the highly resistant NDM-1 (New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase 1), with only three antibiotics in the pipeline. NDM-1 makes bacteria resistant to a broad range of antibiotics, including those from the carbapenem family, which today are the last line of defence against antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections.
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Mission report: June 11-20, 2017
Educational materials (slide presentations) from FAO covering important biosecurity aspects in poultry farms
Lancet Planet Health 2022;6: e760–68
The emergence of COVID-19 has drawn the attention of health researchers sharply back to the role that food ...systems can play in generating human disease burden. But emerging pandemic threats are just one dimension of the complex relationship between agriculture and infectious disease, which is evolving rapidly, particularly in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) that are undergoing rapid food system transformation. This changing relationship is examined through four current disease issues.
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The pre-clinical pipeline shows more innovation and diversity, with 252 agents being developed to treat WHO priority pathogens.
However, these products are in the very early stages of development... and still need to be proven effective and safe. The optimistic scenario, the report indicates, is for the first two to five products to become available in about 10 years.
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During the first two years of the project (2019–2020), through a ‘One Health’ approach, comprehensive engagement was established with AMR coordinating committees, WHO regional and country offi...ces and SORT IT partners in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas. Thirty-seven research studies were launched to inform AMR action plans in target country studies – local research, for local solutions, with local ownership.
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The ICAT is a simple and practical approach for assessing the adequacy of existing infection prevention and control practices and provides specific recommendations for improving practices and monito...ring their effectiveness over time
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The following checklist is a companion to Core Elements of Hospital Antibiotic Stewardship Programs. This checklist should be used to systematically assess key elements and actions to ensure optimal antibiotic prescribing and limit overuse and misus...e of antibiotics in hospitals. CDC recommends that all hospitals implement an Antibiotic Stewardship Program.
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The importance of fruits and vegetables in nutritious and healthy diets is well recognized, and in recent years consumers have been encouraged to eat more of these products. For many countries, particularly developing countries, these products have ...become a valuable commodity. At the same time, food safety problems linked to the consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables contaminated with microorganisms are increasing
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The following checklist is a companion to Core Elements of Hospital Antibiotic Stewardship Programs. This checklist should be used to systematically assess key elements and actions to ensure optimal antibiotic prescribing and limit overuse and misus...e of antibiotics in hospitals. CDC recommends that all hospitals implement an Antibiotic Stewardship Program.
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Training manual that outlines the training of smallholder farmers to improve biosecurity and practices in their farms to prevent infectious diseases and thus the need for use of veterinary drugs. De...scribes training sessions and includes exercises and handouts.
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A Guide to the Application of the WHO Multimodal Hand HygieneImprovement Strategy and the “My Five Moments for Hand Hygiene”Αpproach
Healthcare-associated infections (HAI) are a significant burden globally, with millions of patients affected each year. These infections affect both high- and limited-resource healthcare settings, but in limited-resource settings, rates are approximately twice as high as high-resource settings (15 o...ut of every 100 patients versus 7 out of every 100 patients). Furthermore, rates of infections within certain patient populations are significantly higher in limited-resource settings, including surgical patients, patients in intensive-care units (ICU) and neonatal units. It is well documented that environmental contamination plays a role in the transmission of HAIs in healthcare settings. Therefore, environmental cleaning is a fundamental intervention for infection prevention and control (IPC).It is a multifaceted intervention that involves cleaning and disinfection (when indicated) of the environment alongside other key program elements to support successful implementation (e.g., leadership support, training, monitoring, and feedback mechanisms). To be effective, environmental cleaning activities must be implemented within the framework of the facility IPC program, and not as a standalone intervention. It is also essential that IPC programs advocate for and work with facility administration and government officials to budget, operate and maintain adequate water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) infrastructure to ensure that environmental cleaning can be performed according to best practices.
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Event-based surveillance (EBS) is defined as the organized collection, monitoring, assessment and interpretation of mainly unstructured ad hoc information regarding health events or risks, which may represent an acute risk to health. Both indicator-...based and event-based surveillance components serve the early warning and response (EWAR) function of the public health surveillance system. The Framework for Event-based Surveillance offers guidance to public health practitioners seeking to implement EBS at each administrative level in their countries.
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Intensive Care Med (2009) 35:9–29DOI 10.1007/s00134-008-1336-9
Although thousands of papers have been devoted tohospital-acquired pneumonia (HAP), many controversiesremain, and management of HAP is probably often sub-optimal. Several reviews or guidelines have been pub-lished rec...ently, mostly by North American initiatives(CDC, ATS). Three European Societies (ERS, ESCMID andESICM) were interested in producing a document thatcould complement in some way the last IDSA/ATS guidelines published 3 years ago. In addition, the Helics
working group supported this initiative.
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Purpose of this document: to present eight practical steps that Member States can take at the national and sub-national level to improve WASH in health care facilities