Are you smart about antibiotics? That’s the question the CDC is asking as part of its week-long effort to educate people about antibiotic resistance – something the organization calls “one of today’s most pressing public health threats.” Its Get Smart About Antibiotics website offers valuable tips and information on antibiotic use, and CDC Director Thomas Frieden, MD, MPH, will be answering questions on the topic during a live Twitter chat Friday morning. (Follow the hashtag #CDCchat at 10 AM Pacific time tomorrow to join the conversation.)
Stanford, meanwhile, is aiming to educate medical professionals by launching a free online course called “Antimicrobial Stewardship: Optimization of Antibiotic Practice.” The course, directed by Stan Deresinski, MD, head of Stanford’s Antimicrobial Stewardship Program, will "offer a practical approach to prescribing antibiotic therapy and development of antimicrobial stewardship across all specialties and settings." As for the need for such a course, the website explains:
Antibiotics are among the most frequently prescribed classes of drugs and it is estimated that approximately 50% of antibiotic use, in both the outpatient and inpatient settings, is inappropriate. At the same time, in contrast to any other class of drugs, every antibiotic use has a potential public health consequence – inappropriate use may not harm only the individual patient, but contributes to societal harm by exerting an unnecessary selective pressure that may lead to antibiotic resistance among bacteria.
The course is sponsored by the Division of Infectious Diseases and Geographic Medicine in the Department of Medicine. Participants have the option of taking the course for CME credit.
Previously: Side effects of long-term antibiotic use linked to oxidative stress, New method may speed identification of antibiotic targets, Harnessing evolutionary forces to develop more effective methods for treating superbugs and Norway’s strategy for fighting drug-resistant bacteria
Photo by Iqbal Osman1
