Wayne State University is offering a CME course on the appropriate use of antibiotics for upper respiratory infections. Click here to access the course.

During the week of October 5-11, CDC is promoting "Get Smart About Antibiotics Week". This is a yearly focus on appropriate use of antibiotics that involves Get Smart partners around the country. GUARD is pleased to participate in Get Smart Week. Click here to view a video prepared by the CDC that explains in simple terms when we use antibiotics, and when we should not.

There is good news about the inappropriate use of antibiotics in children. This report from Reuters discusses the results of a study showing a significant decrease in the use of antibiotics for acute respiratory infections over the past 10 years. The study published by Dr. Carlos Grijalva and colleagues from Vanderbilt University can be found in this week's issue of Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).  Click here to read more.

Dosing and monitoring recommendations for Vancomycin in the treatment of Staph Aureus infections have been modified due to rising minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) nationwide. For more information, see the August 1 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases (Clin Infect Dis. 2009;49:325–327). For those with Medscape access, click here to veiw a summary of the recommendations.

CNN has just published a nice summary of issues surrounding antimicrobial resistance among Swine Flu strains and various bacteria, including MRSA. Click here for the full story.

A team of researchers in South Dakota have announced the development of a new antimicrobial paint that appears to be effective against a number of bacteria, including Stapylococcus aureus. To read more please click on the following link:

http://www.webmd.com/news/20090416/super-strong-paint-kills-superbugs

The citation for the original article: Zhengbing, C. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, Feb. 25, 2009; vol 1: pp 494-504.

A number of retail stores and pharmacies have made efforts in recent years to provide certain prescription medications at either a low rate or free of charge. While laudable in their intent, these policies have great potential to undermine progress that has been made in reducing unnecessary antibiotic use and rates of antimicrobial resistance. This topic has now hit the mainstream media. A recent article in the New York Times highlights the problem with free antibiotics. To read more, click on this link:                     http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/05/health/policy/05drugs.html?_r=1

An article from the Augusta Chronicle describing reports of MRSA in local schools. Click here to read the article.

GUARD is pleased to offer a lecture on Community Associated Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (CA-MRSA) as part of a statewide educational campaign. Physicians can get 1.25 Continuing Medical Education cretdits through the Medical College of Georgia for participating in this activity. Both the lecture and the CME offer can be accessed by clicking on the following link: http://www.mcg.edu/ce/Online/mrsaonline.htm Physicians can listen alone or listen and get credit. Please follow instructions on the linked web-page to claim CME credit. The first 250 physicians  to respond to the offer will receive these credits for free. The cost for any further physicians is $10.

9,700 pirmary care physicians throughout Georgia received educational packets in September of 2008 that contain a variety of materials on CA-MRSA. These materials include a fact sheet, a patient discharge form, a poster, and a two-page synopsis of CDC recommendations on management of CA-MRSA infections. All of these materials are also available for download on this website. Please go to the "Educational Materials" tab to find them. 

This effort represents a collaboration between GUARD, the Georgia Department of Human Resources, and the Georgia MRSA Task Force, with additional assistance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

From August "Emergency Medicine Today", American College of Emergency Medicine

 Adverse effects from antibiotics send thousands to EDs annually, research indicates.

MedPage Today (8/13, Gever) reported that "[a]dverse effects from antibiotics led to more than 140,000 emergency [department] visits in the U.S. annually from 2004 through 2006, accounting for one-fifth of all such drug-related events," according to research published online in Clinical Infectious Diseases. Investigators "analyzed adverse-event data from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System and Cooperative Adverse Drug Event Surveillance projects, developed by the CDC, the FDA, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission." The researchers "also used data on outpatient antibiotic prescription volume from several national surveys of ambulatory care providers." The "[d]ata...revealed a total of 6,614 visits related to outpatient antibiotic therapy, which was extrapolated to an annual national volume of 142,505 visits." The researchers found that "[a]llergic reactions accounted for an estimated 78.7 percent of antibiotic-related events." The investigators added that the "[a]ntibiotic classes most commonly involved with adverse events were the penicillins, fluoroquinolones, and cephalosporins, which were involved in 36.9 percent, 13.5 percent, and 12.2 percent of visits, respectively."