Resistant pathogens

Infections acquired from an external source are referred to as exogenous infections. These infections may occur as a result of human-to-human transmission, contact with exogenous bacterial populations in the environment, and animal contact. Resistant pathogens such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus spp. 

Previous hospitalization or health care utilization (Also a key determinant in selecting therapy because the patient may be at risk for specific pathogens and/or resistant pathogens)... 

Hospital (Early onset no risk factors for resistant pathogens)... 

Risk factors for developing an infection caused by a resistant pathogen generally are related to the prior use of antibiotics, insertion of catheters or other invasive devices, and hospitalization in a unit contaminated/colonized with resistant organisms. The following is a more complete list of factors influencing infection from a resistant organism ... 

Risk factors for infection with a resistant pathogen (day-care attendee,... 

Invent and learn to manufacture effective antiviral agents and antibiotics to fight all serious diseases, including those caused by drug-resistant pathogens. 

Pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic modeling indicates that the AUC/MIC ratio is predictive of outcome for this antibacterial suggesting that telithromycin is suitable for short-duration therapy and a once-daily dosing regimen even against / -lactam and macrolide-resistant pathogens... 

One of the major criticisms of FDA s scientific basis for wanting to restrict the use of antibiotics in animal feeds has been that it has not provided any specific instances of human illness due to drug-resistant pathogens that resulted from the subtherapeutic feeding of antibiotics to animals. However, individual events in the complicated sequence have been documented. Another report (12) by Dr. Scott Holmberg and others at CDC which appeared in the September 6, 1984, issue of the New England Journal of Medicine purportedly linked, for the first time, the use of subtherapeutic antibiotics in livestock feed to the development of serious drug resistant infections in humans. 

In the decade of the 1950s, the use of antibiotics in animal feeds led to improvements in animal health and animal production. This contributed to the rise of large units for maintaining meat animals and poultry. These first 10 years should have given ample time for resistant pathogens to have become widespread. Ten years of this spread of resistance ought to have made antibiotics in animal feed useless or deleterious so that their commercial use would cease. Yet this has not happened, even after 35 years. The failure of such a series of events to take place is an unexplained riddle. 

If this is true, said the committee, and if these resistant bacteria reach consumers of meat, there would be an increased risk of infection by resistant pathogens, or there would be an increased likelihood of acquiring a nonpathogenic resistant organism that could transmit infectious resistance to pathogens. "Infectious resistance" refers to the transfer of resistant genes between bacterial cells by means of plasmids or episomes. The committee concluded that not enough information was avialable on these issues to determine the effects on human health. 

Co-trimoxazole is a combination of trimethoprim and the sulfonamide sulfamethoxazole. Since THF synthesis is inhibited at two successive steps, the antibacterial effect of co-trimoxazole is better than that of the individual components. Resistant pathogens are infrequent a bactericidal effect may occur. Adverse effects correspond to those of the components. 

A constantly increasing problem in antibiotic treatment is the development of resistant pathogens that no longer respond to the drugs available. The illustration shows a few of the therapeutically important antibiotics and their sites of action in the bacterial metabolism. 

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