Objective To determine whether adding urine culture to urinary tract infection diagnosis in pregnant women from refugee camps in
Lebanon reduced unnecessary antibiotic use.
                                                            
                         
                     
                                                        
                        
                        
                            
                            
                                                                The microbiology laboratory database software.
WHONET is a desktop Windows application for the management and analysis of microbiology laboratory data with a particular focus on antimicrobial resistance surveillance. WHONET, available in 28 languages, supports local, national, regional, and global ...surveillance efforts in over 2,300 hospital, public health, animal health, and food laboratories in over 130 countries worldwide.
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                                                                User GuideThe toolkit is composed of three sections:  Hospital and Health System Resources - includes a readiness assessment tool, the starting point in developing or enhancing a successful Antimicrobial Stewardship Program (ASP).  The tool, a checklist developed by the CDC, should be shared with se...nior management, a senior leader for quality, purchasing directors, clinic managers, nurse managers, key physician leaders, risk managers, pharmacy leaders, infection preventionists and hospital epidemiologists, laboratory staff and information technology staff.  For ease of use, it is divided into two sections, one for those just beginning a program, the other for those who wish to enhance an existing program. Clinician Resources - includes webinars, clinical evidence supporting appropriate use of antibiotics, implementation guides and related articles.Patient Resources - includes frequently asked questions, pamphlets and handouts on how patients can best engage in their care and resources on appropriate use of antibiotics.
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                                                                The following checklist is a companion to Core Elements of Hospital Antibiotic Stewardship Programs. This checklist should be used to systematically assess key elements and actions to ensure optimal antibiotic prescribing and limit overuse and misuse of antibiotics in hospitals. CDC recommends that ...all hospitals implement an Antibiotic Stewardship Program.
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                                                                A growing body of evidence demonstrates that hospital based programs dedicated to improving antibiotic use, commonly referred to as “Antibiotic Stewardship Programs (ASPs),” can both optimize the treatment of infections and reduce adverse events associated with antibiotic use. This document summ...arizes core elements of successful hospital Antibiotic Stewardship Programs. It complements existing guidelines on ASPs from different American organizations.
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                                                                As a public good, antimicrobial medicines require rational use if their effectiveness is to be preserved. However, up to 50% of antibiotic use is inappropriate, adding considerable costs to patient care, and increasing morbidity and mortality. In addition, there is compelling evidence that antimicro...bial resistance is driven by the volume of antimicrobial agents used. High rates of antimicrobial resistance to common treatments are currently reported all over the world, both in health care settings and in the community. For over two decades, the Region of the Americas has been a pioneer in confronting antimicrobial resistance from a public health perspective. However, those efforts need to be stepped up if we are to have an impact on  antimicrobial resistance and want to quantify said impact.
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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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                                                                The purpose of this manual is to define a limited number of indicators that will objectively describe the management and use of antimicrobials in hospitals and to provide tools and step-by-step instructions for designing and carrying out an assessment of antibiotic use and management in hospitals. T...he indicators in this manual will complement the existing WHO (1993) indicators of outpatient antimicrobial use suggested in How to Investigate Drug Use in Health Facilities (including percentage of encounters in which an antibiotic was prescribed and percentage of medicine costs spent on antibiotics) and will address the need for antimicrobial indicators for inpatient conditions.
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