Antimicrobial Stewardship Project Newsletter

An artist whose experience with stigma during treatment for drug-resistant tuberculosis inspires her to ensure that others never feel the same way.

A physician whose moments with people diagnosed with gonorrhea in a prison setting make him reconsider how he views the role of freedom in the doctor-patient relationship.

A researcher whose encounters with scientific inspiration and personal grief have her digging in the dirt with high-school students each summer to find the future of new antibiotics.

For three years, the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy Antimicrobial Stewardship Project (CIDRAP-ASP) and the Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Fighter Coalition have produced Superbugs and You, a podcast series that centers the lived experience of difficult-to-treat infections in stories from patients, patient advocates, clinicians, and researchers.

The fourth season of Superbugs and You has now been released! We hear stories from people wrestling with the rise in drug-resistant shigellosis infections, working with Italy’s G7 presidency to bid arrivederci to AMR, building a safe future for people with cystic fibrosis, and envisioning stronger connections between AMR prevention in people and the environment.

“I think what people sometimes lose track of, is that they think the battle’s over, and don’t appreciate that the pathogens we’ve tried to combat are dynamic. Like us, they change and what works today doesn’t work tomorrow.” 

- Dr. Lou Bourgeois, Senior Associate Research Professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, in Season 4, Episode 1: "Oh, $@%!: Drug-resistant Shigella"

The stories of AMR featured in Superbugs and You are not rare, and they are not simply stories of suffering and frustration. They are stories of people finding a career and a vocation, learning to care about and fight for the rights of others in unexpected ways, claiming the expertise granted by personal experience with illness and injustice, and striving to create a healthy future for all people. 

Listen to Superbugs and You

In an in-depth story for CIDRAP News, Chris Dall, MA, describes the experience of Mallory Smith, a young woman whose two published diaries—Salt in My Soul and Diary of a Dying Girl—reveal Smith's struggles with cystic fibrosis and her desire to build a better world and live a normal life, despite a 13-year battle with multidrug-resistant bacteria that would eventually take her life.

This story also features insights from:

• Diane Shader Smith, Mallory Smith's mother;
• Steffanie Strathdee, PhD, associate dean of global health sciences at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine;
• Emily Wheeler, director of infectious disease policy at the Biotechnology Innovation Organization; and
• Vanessa Carter, executive director of the AMR Narrative.

Read more

Armed conflict and AMR. In Rolling Stone, Eli Cahan, MD, MS, describes how armed conflict facilitates the emergence and spread of AMR, discussing also the interplay between complex injuries, environmental changes wrought by war, inadequately resourced hospitals, and a low level of political will to address AMR. Learn more.
 

AMR priorities in LMICs. India's Centre for Science and Environment published takeaways from a meeting of experts from African and Asian countries to inform AMR priorities of low- and middle-income countries at the upcoming UN General Assembly High-level Meeting on AMR. Learn more.
 

Social media stewardship. On the Infectious Diseases Society of America Science Speaks blog, Erica Kaufman West, MD, discusses the need to apply antimicrobial stewardship principles to physicians' responsible use of social media, asking "Do physicians risk some mental health harms for the public good?" Learn more.

Croatia. Value-Dx features an interview with Arjana Tambic Andrasevic, MD, PhD, about AMR surveillance, rapid diagnostics, and the effect of COVID-19 on drug-resistant healthcare-associated infections in Croatia. Learn more.
 

EU/EEA. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control published a report on typhoid and paratyphoid in the EU/EEA during 2021, noting 304 laboratory-confirmed cases. About 68% of cases were travel-related, a percentage that the report calls "unusually low." Learn more.
 

Jordan. The USAID Medicines. Technologies, and Pharmaceutical Services Program describes country-wide trainings implemented in partnership with Jordan's Ministry of Health and School Health Directorate to educate schoolchildren about AMR. Learn more.
 

Nigeria. On The Conversation, Kirsty Sands, PhD, Edward AR Portal, PhD, Owen Spiller, PhD, and Timothy R Walsh, DSc, describe methods and results from their study of colistin-resistant bacteria in newborn babies in Nigeria, despite neither they nor their mothers having been exposed to the last-resort antibiotic. The authors call for a global ban on indiscriminate colistin use in agriculture, along with urgent investment in hospital infection prevention and farm sanitation programs. Learn more.
 

The Philippines. The Republic of the Philippines AMR Surveillance Reference Laboratory published its annual report on aerobic bacteria of public health importance collected from 24 hospital-based bacteriology laboratories and one gonococcal surveillance site during 2023. Learn more.
 

United States. On Contagion, Sophia Abene interviews Julie Ann Justo, PharmD, MS, and Emily Heil, PharmD, MS, about their work on an update to Infectious Diseases Society of America guidelines for treating drug-resistant gram-negative infections. Learn more.

Environmental antimicrobial pollution in India. In BMJ, Kamala Thiagarajan reports on the effects of pharmaceutical waste products, including antibiotic residues, discharged from pharmaceutical manufacturers and hospitals in India, along with challenges associated with developing and enforcing standards for antibiotic pollution. Learn more.
 

Project to combat drug-resistant Vibrio in Thailand's shrimp farms. Thailand's National Science and Technology Development Agency announced that, in collaboration with the National Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology and Kasetsart University, it has launched the ShrimpGuard project to develop phage-based formulations to combat drug-resistant Vibrio spp. in farmed shrimp. Learn more.
 

Antimicrobial use in Kosovo's livestock sector. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations published a report on antimicrobial use practices in Kosovo's livestock sector. Learn more.
 

Global One Health guidance. The World Health Organization (WHO) published a compendium of WHO and other United Nations guidance on health and environment, highlighting the guidance and interventions that manage AMR in sanitation and One Health improvements. Learn more.