Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a major public health challenge, which is recognized as high priority area by the Government of India. The increasing consumption of antibiotics is one of the key drivers of antimicrobial resistance seen in bugs of public health importance. Irrational prescription o...f broad-spectrum antibiotics, poor regulations around sale of antibiotics, self-medication, lack of education and awareness regarding responsible use of antibiotics have been identified as some of the key factors driving antimicrobial resistance in our country. The ‘National Health Policy’ (2017), addresses antimicrobial resistance as one of the key issues and prioritises development of guidelines regarding antibiotic use, limiting the over-the-counter use of antibiotics, restricting the use of antibiotics as growth promoters in livestock, and pharmaco-vigilance including prescription audit inclusive of antibiotic usage in the hospital and community.
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This course will equip clinicians who frequently prescribe antimicrobials with knowledge and tools to improve their use of these essential medications in daily clinical practice. Through case based examples, the course will highlight how antimicrobial stewardship principles can be applied to common ...clinical scenarios. We will first review foundational clinical knowledge necessary to use antimicrobials wisely. Then, we will illustrate how clinicians can incorporate this knowledge into the management of patients with common infections through adherence to the five core competencies of appropriate antimicrobial prescribing. This course will provide a framework for approaching each clinical encounter from the perspective of combating antimicrobial resistance.
The course is available in English, French, Italian, Russiand and Spanish
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Designed for healthcare professionals, this six-week course will inform you about – and empower you to provide – safe, high-quality antibiotic use. You’ll interact with colleagues globally, to understand what antibiotic resistance means – and why the World Economic Forum has placed it alongs...ide terrorism and climate change on its global risk register. You can also join the course in Spanish, Chinese, or Russian.
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S Afr Med J 2018;108(7):546-550. DOI:10.7196/SAMJ.2018.v108i7.13149
Antimicrobial stewardship programmes have been introduced worldwide in response to the rise in antimicrobial resistance. The World Health Organization has mandated each Member State to produce a plan to address this problem. We rep...ort on the organic development of an antibiotic stewardship programme in a rural regional hospital in a resource-limited setting in South Africa. This has resulted in organisational change with increased awareness, participation, monitoring and education in antibiotic stewardship throughout the hospital
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This book provides a perfect companion to BSAC’s FREE Massive Open Online Course on Antimicrobial Stewardship, which is available in English, Mandarin, Spanish, and Russian. Visit www.futurelearn.com/courses/antimicrobial-stewardship for details.
Please download the complete e-book form the websi...te (Large File 41 MB!)
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Scientists have known for more than half a century that patients could develop resistance to the drugs used to treat them. Alexander Fleming, who is credited with creating the first antibiotic, penicillin, in 1928, cautioned of the impending crisis while accepting his Nobel prize in 1945: “There ...is the danger that the ignorant man may easily underdose himself and by exposing his microbes to non-lethal quantities of the drug make them resistant.” Since then antibiotics have proved one of the most effective interventions in human medicine. Sadly, the overuse and misuse of this precious resource have brought us to a global crisis of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). To address this crisis nearly seven decades after Fleming’s lecture the first UN general assembly meeting on drug resistance bacteria was convened in September 2017.
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Stewardship is defined as “the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one’s care”. It was originally applied in the health-care setting as a tool for optimizing antimicrobial use, termed “antimicrobial stewardship” (AMS). Stewardship has since be...en applied in the context of governance of the health sector as a whole, taking responsibility for the health and well-being of the population and guiding health systems at the national and global level.
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This book provides significantly expanded content and experience in relation to a broader stewardship context- for example, stewardship in specific populations, different countries as well as the role of different professions in stewardship to political and media engagement. We hope this book has so...mething to offer everyone practicing in this area. Therefore, The British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy [BSAC] in collaboration with ESGAP are very pleased to present this e-book on Global Antimicrobial Stewardship that is relevant to health care professions working in preventing and managing infection across the healthcare communities and health care facilities. It aims to support health care professionals, or teams, or policy makers interested in learning about bringing the principles of stewardship to the bed side
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This guideline covers making people aware of how to correctly use antimicrobial medicines (including antibiotics) and the dangers associated with their overuse and misuse. It also includesmeasures to prevent and control infection that can stop people needing antimicrobials or spreadinginfection to o...thers. It aims to change people's behaviour to reduce antimicrobial resistance and thespread of resistant microbes.
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Antibiotic Stewardship (AS) is a coordinated program that promotes the appropriate use of antimicrobials to improve patient outcomes, reduce microbial resistance, and decrease the spread of multi-drug resistant organisms. In clinical settings, stewardship activities focus on measuring and improving ...how antibiotics are prescribed by clinicians and used by patients. Improving antibiotic prescribing involves implementing effective strategies to modify prescribing practices to align them with evidence-based recommendations for diagnosis and management.
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The era of effective antibiotics is coming to a close. In just a few generations, many “miracle medicines”have been beaten into ineffectiveness by the bacteria they were intended to eradicate. Bacteria quickly adapt to the presence of antibacterial agents in order ...to survive. The misuse of antibiotics,which is an international problem, only exacerbates the steady evolution of resistance. In August 2010, the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases posed the question "Is this the end of antibiotics?" documentingthe rapid spread of multidrug-resistant bacteriaand predicting that 10 years remain in the useful life of many agents.
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Antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) describes a coherent set of actions that ensure optimal use of antimicrobials to improve patient outcomes, while limiting the risk of adverse events (including antimicrobial resistance (AMR)). Introduction of AMS programmes in hospitals is part of most national action... plans to mitigate AMR, yet the optimal components and actions of such a programme remain undetermined.
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Antibiotic stewardship refers to coordinated efforts and activities that seek to measure and improve use of antibiotics. Implementation of ASPs has demonstrated positive public health and clinical impacts including reducing costs, lengths of hospital stays, and the burden of antibiotic resistance wh...ile maintaining or improving patient outcomes. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released the Core Elements of Hospital Antibiotic Stewardship Programs in 2014, which outlines essential components for ASPs in hospitals and provides practical guidance for implementing a robust ASPin an acute care facility. Variations to the Core Elements have been developed to deal with the particular challenges in small, rural or critical access hospitals in the United States and in outpatient facilities and nursing homes.
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The available data on antimicrobial stewardship programmes in Africa are scarce. The aims of this study were to assess the implementation of an antimicrobial stewardship programme in a setting with limited infectious disease resources.
Articles| Volume 16, ISSUE 9, P1017-1025, September 01, 2016
Improve your knowledge of the spread of antimicrobial resistance in Africa and how to reduce it - Online Course
This course will offer a practical approach to prescribing antibiotic therapy and development of antimicrobial stewardship across all specialties and settings. 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. This video based course will introduce learners to the basic principles of appropriate antibiotic use, demonstrate how to apply these principles to the management of common infections, and outline how to develop and maintain an antimicrobial stewardship program.
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This module will consider the role of community pharmacy teams in tackling antimicrobial resistance. After reading this module you will be able to explain why antimicrobial resistance is a threat to patient safety, and public and global health. You will also be able to list common self-limiting infe...ctions, their usual duration, and outline the key messages that you should be sharing with the public.
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Member States have requested WHO policy guidance on how to facilitate the implementation of national AMS activities in an integrated and programmatic approach. This policy guidance responds to that demand from Member States and is anchored in public health guiding principles in the human health sect...or. It aims to provide a set of evidence-based and pragmatic recommendations to drive comprehensive and integrated AMS activities under the purview of a central national coordination unit, National AMR steering or coordinating committees or other equivalent national authorities.
Available in English, French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Chinese
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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. This video based course will introduce learners to the basic principles of appropriate antibiotic use, demonstrate how to apply these principles to the management of common infections, and outline how to develop and maintain an antimicrobial stewardship program. We will offer a number of illustrative cases, recognizable to the practicing physician in his or her practice to engage learners in the thought processes that lead to optimal decision making, improved outcomes of individual patients, and harm reduction vis-a-vis the bacterial ecology.
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