Past Weekly News Roundups

NIH reports that drug resistant Klebsiella has claimed its 7th victim since its outbreak in the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center last year. The boy who contracted the bacterial infection and ultimately died of it was already immune-compromised by a genetic condition. The case is troubling because the hospital was cleansed after the outbreak and was thought until now to have ended the outbreak. Washington Post

Researchers at Hauptman-Woodward medical have announced that they have identified a series of genes in A. baumannii, a gram negative multidrug resistant bacterium, which are required for the bacterium to reproduce. A. baumannii commonly infects the elderly, the ill, and recent surgery patients and has proven extremely difficult to clear from hospitals. These genes may spark a new line of drugs to combat A. baumannii as well as being other gram-negative infections. genengnews

Researchers at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland have discovered a natural antibiotic, pyridomycin, produced by the bacterium Dactylosporangium fulvum. The antibiotic appears to be effective against multidrug resistant TB. By binding onto the InHa enzyme site responsible for resistance to many front line drugs, pyridomycin is able to block the creation of mycolic acids necessary for cell wall development. medicalxpress

ArtPharm, a Chinese company has announced that it will now be making its new malaria drug Artequick, a combination of Artemisinin and Piperaquine available in Nigeria. This follows the Nigerian National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control announcing that it had approved and registered Artequick. Artequick is a single dose, 24hour treatment for multidrug resistant malaria with 98% efficacy and less than 3% side effects. Allafrica

The World Health Organizations reports that cost cutting measures and budget cut backs could result in a significant rise in TB,HIV and drug resistant TB in eastern Europe and Central Asia. Many member nations of the EU are facing austerity cutback which is resulting in significant defunding of their TB and HIV programs. WHO warns that the long term cost of increase treatment cost and lives will result in economic losses of approximately 12 billion dollars over 5 years. Chicago tribune

A coalition of 157 scientists and 49 ranchers released coordinated letters at a ‘Keep Antibiotics Working.org’ press conference. The letters, urge the government and other farmers to stop using antibiotics on farm animals which are not sick in order to prevent antibiotic resistant bacteria from infecting herds and from causing illness in the general public. Food poisoning

Novaris, a Swiss pharmaceutical company has announced the release of its new breast cancer drug, Afinator, after it was approved by the European Commission. Afinator will now be used to treat advanced breast cancer in post-menopausal women. It has been shown to work even when the cancer is resistant to the current methods of treatment. zenopa