The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has awarded more than $14 million to fund new approaches to combat antibiotic resistance, including projects from UC Berkeley and UC Davis.
The CDC is funding 34 projects to support activities related to its Antibiotic Resistance Solutions Initiative and implement the tracking, prevention and antibiotic stewardship activities outlined in the National Action Plan for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria. The goal of these projects is to find new approaches to combat antibiotic resistance, including research on how the microorganisms that are naturally found in the human body, called the microbiome, can be used to predict and prevent infections caused by drug-resistant organisms.
“Understanding the role the microbiome plays in antibiotic-resistant infections is necessary to protect the public’s health,” said CDC director Tom Frieden. “We think it is key to innovative approaches to combat antibiotic resistance, protect patients and improve antibiotic use.”
The CDC-UC Berkeley collaboration will study whether food is a significant source of the antibiotic-resistant bacteria that cause urinary tract infections, the most common bacterial infections in the developed world, which disproportionately affect women. The project is led by Lee Riley, a professor of infectious diseases at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health.
Treatment of urinary tract infections has become more difficult in recent years because E. coli, the most common bacteria that cause urinary tract infections, have become increasingly resistant to commonly used antimicrobial agents. Researchers do not know how big a role food plays in spreading the antibiotic-resistant forms of the bacteria, which is the key question Riley’s team aims to answer.
“Understanding what proportion of multidrug-resistant urinary tract infections are attributable to food sources will change the way we calculate the burden of foodborne disease and the impact of antimicrobial use in food animal husbandry,” Riley said.
The CDC-UC Davis Medical Center collaboration is working to reduce inappropriate antibiotic prescribing and preserve the microbe-fighting power of antibiotics.
Led by Larissa May, a UC Davis associate professor of emergency medicine and national expert on antibiotic stewardship, the study focuses on reducing antibiotic prescriptions for acute bronchitis in adults and upper respiratory tract infections in children – two common conditions seen in emergency and urgent-care settings that are often inappropriately treated with antibiotics.
“Seventy-five percent of adults with acute bronchitis and 45 percent of children with viral upper respiratory infections are treated with antibiotics in emergency departments nationwide even though we have good evidence that these infections will resolve on their own and should be managed with over-the-counter medications and other remedies designed to treat the symptoms,” May said.
“The difficulty is that providers in emergency and urgent-care settings face unique challenges to decision-making, including frequent interruptions and the need make decisions quickly with limited information,” she said.
