Friday, November 24, 2017

Resistance: Film on the Threat of Resistant Microbes



For any of you seeking an engaging and well done documentary on antimicrobial resistance (suitable for the lay public), check out Resistance.  The film is available on Netflix.

The film neatly summarizes the antibiotic era and the drivers of antibiotic misuse in both medicine and agribusiness. A 'tragedy of the commons' is looming in the threat of a post-antibiotic era.

In medical practice, rapid  infectious diseases (PCR based) diagnostics minimize uncertainty and can curtail the use of unnecessary just-in-case antibiotics. The next frontier is the use of computer assisted decision support- clinical decision trees to maximally guide antibiotic prescription at in real time, as explored here in this recent Clinical Infectious Diseases article.

Antibiotics must be treated as precious resources.