News | Antimicrobial resistance and stewardship

Welsh pharmacy sore throat test and treat service ‘should not be routinely adopted’, review finds

The use of rapid antigen detection tests in community pharmacies for the diagnosis and management of people with group A streptococcal infections should not be routinely adopted, according to guidance from Health Technology Wales.…

Antivirals have little effect on mortality in patients hospitalised with COVID-19, suggest WHO trial interim results

Four repurposed antiviral treatments for COVID-19 have little or no effect on mortality in patients who are hospitalised, interim results from the World Health Organization’s Solidarity trial have suggested.…

Stuck in the 1950s: why UTI diagnosis badly needs an update

Urinary tract infections are the second most common reason for prescribing an antibiotic and, with antimicrobial stewardship a priority for the government, the stakes for accurate diagnosis are being raised ever higher.…

EMA to investigate possible link between remdesivir and acute kidney injury

The European Medicines Agency’s safety committee is to review reports of acute kidney injury in some patients being given remdesivir for COVID-19.…

Honey effective at relieving URTI symptoms, analysis concludes

Honey is superior to usual care for improving symptoms of upper respiratory tract infection symptoms, researchers have concluded.…

Government tightens availability of remdesivir treatment for COVID-19 patients as supplies shrink

Patients with COVID-19 across the UK will now have to meet additional criteria before being prescribed remdesivir as supplies of the drug become limited.…

Clinical guidelines recommend dipstick tests for lower UTI diagnosis alongside two or more symptoms

Accurate diagnosis of a lower urinary tract infection in women aged under 65 years should be based on a positive dipstick test result for nitrite, alongside two or more urinary symptoms, new guidelines from the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network say.…

Would my son have his Lyme disease diagnosis without my mother’s instinct? It’s time we trusted our patients

Pharmacist Arlene Brailey continues to fight for better testing and diagnosis of Lyme disease, after a tick bite left her son chronically ill.…

Beyond antibiotics: harnessing bacteria’s natural predators

With antibiotic resistance set to cost 10 million lives per year by 2050, there is a renaissance of interest in the potential of bacteriophages to be the next generation of bacteria killers.…

Preserving macrolides

Macrolide antibiotics have many uses, particularly for penicillin-allergic patients, but recent trends suggest that resistance is increasing among Gram-positive infections.…