View clinical trials related to Antimicrobial Resistance.
Filter by:The aims of this project, called "Surveillance of Healthcare-associated infections & Antimicrobial Resistance", or "SHARE", are to 1) enhance laboratory capacity to detect emerging AMR patterns; 2) strengthen hospital epidemiology programs to use data to prevent, detect, and contain emerging AMR threats; 3) deploy study teams to answer critical public health surveillance questions, and 4) to build a national network of infection prevention and control (IPC) resources to prevent, detect, and contain emerging infectious disease threats
Antibiotics have brought about a substantial reduction in infectious mortality. However, inappropriate antibiotic use has driven the rapid increase in antibiotic resistance. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that at least 2 million people in the United States (US) become infected with antibiotic-resistant bacteria each year, and at least 23,000 people die each year as a direct result of these infections. Antimicrobial stewardship programs have largely focused on inpatient settings and have excluded emergency departments (ED). The ED is a unique healthcare setting which is distinct from inpatient and other ambulatory settings. Given the many factors that could influence inappropriate antibiotic prescribing, a one-size-fits-all approach is unlikely to work for all physicians and all regions. Hence, the design and implementation of tailored interventions based on the understanding of the local patient, physician, and ED organizational factors are pertinent for the interventions. The team has conducted a mixed-methods study to understand the patient, physician, and organisational factors that influence antibiotic prescribing in the local EDs. The findings of the study were used to design two interventions which will be implemented in four EDs in Singapore to reduce the inappropriate antibiotic prescribing in the ED. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of 2 tailored antimicrobial stewardship interventions in reducing antibiotic prescribing rates for uncomplicated URTI patients attending four adult EDs in Singapore: 1. Patient education via information leaflets addressing knowledge-, perception-, and belief-gaps of the local patient population on antibiotic use for URTI 2. Two-monthly physician feedback on their antibiotic prescribing rates by senior ED doctors coupled with bite-sized information on good antibiotic prescribing practices. The study will include an initial control period of 18 months where none of the 4 hospitals will be exposed to the interventions. At the beginning of the intervention period, the 4 hospitals will be randomly assigned to one of the 2 interventions (Patient education or physician feedback). At the end of 6 months, all hospitals will receive the other intervention and be exposed to both interventions concurrently. Data will be collected for another 6 months to assess if the effects of the interventions are persistent.
The widespread and unnecessary use of antibiotics has encouraged the growth of antibiotic-resistant bacteria which can cause hard-to-treat and deadly infections. These infections are due to antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The public's lack of knowledge on the indication for and proper use of antibiotics often leads to unnecessary patient demands and subsequent misuse of antibiotics. Traditional mass public educational efforts through the use of brochures, posters and advertisements are extensive in outreach but questionable in effectiveness in improving the general public's knowledge on appropriate antibiotics use and AMR. Serious games app provides an additional venue for public education outreach to the population since a substantial amount of time is spent using smartphones. The use of serious games is expected to increase user engagement in learning, which will lead to short- and long-term improvements in knowledge, attitudes and perceptions on the appropriate use of antibiotics. The study team has co-developed an evidence-based serious game app- "SteWARdS Antibiotic Defense" -with Temasek Polytechnic. Users will be brought on a quest to learn about antibiotic use and AMR through mini-games and the bite-sized information released throughout the game quest. We intend to clinically validate our evidence-based app and improve its application with actual participants' feedback on its usage. Hence, this study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of an evidence-based serious game mobile application (SteWARdS Antibiotic Defense) in improving the knowledge on, attitude towards, and perception (KAP) of appropriate antibiotic use and AMR among Singaporeans. The primary objective is to assess the change in knowledge on antibiotic use and AMR among the app users compared with the control group. The secondary objectives are to:1) Assess the extent of user engagement of the app by evaluating the users' average screen time per day; and 2) Assess the level of user satisfaction in using the app for learning through a user satisfaction survey.
In Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), fever remains a major public health problem in children. The introduction of malaria rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) in routine healthcare has greatly improved the management of malaria. However, despite the good attitude of healthcare workers to adhere to malaria RDT test results, persisting hrp2antigen and low sensitivity of pLDH RDT negatively affect antimalarials and antibiotics prescriptions practices. This is one of the main causes of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and inappropriate management of febrile diseases. To improve the diagnosis of febrile diseases and subsequent prescription of antimicrobials, it is hypothesized that the implementation of an algorithm including a two-step malaria RDT PfHRP2/pLDH supported by point-of-care tests (POCTs) for C-reactive protein, oximetry, and bacterial infection such as Group A Streptococcus, and Salmonella/Shigella, will significantly improve the management of febrile diseases and thereby tackling AMR. To assess the value of the proposed algorithm, an open-label randomized controlled trial with three arms, enrolling febrile children under 5 years is proposed. - In the control arm, febrile children will benefit from a complete clinical examination. Treatment will be done according to the national guideline. - In RDTs decisional algorithm (RDT-DA) arm (intervention), the complete clinical examination will be supported by two-step malaria RDT and bacterial infections RDTs. Prescription will be left to the discretion of the healthcare workers. - In e-algorithm arm (intervention), the complete clinical examination and the outcomes of RDTs (malaria and bacterial infections) will be digitalized. Diagnostic and prescription will be done by the algorithm. A final follow-up visit (day7) will be scheduled for all participants. Patients will be asked to return to the health facilities in case of no improvement. Primary study outcomes will be the proportion of curative case and antimicrobial(s) prescribed in each arm. Secondary outcomes include: (i) adherence of healthcare workers to the algorithm; (ii) adherence of parents/guardian to treatment; (iii) accuracy of the algorithm for the diagnostic of malaria. This project will serve as a path of policy change in the management of febrile diseases and AMR. By relying on existing RDTs available, the implementation of this algorithm will tackle AMR and provide better care. If successful, the project will equip the lead applicant to establish himself as an independent researcher with ability to further build his own research team. The project will also offer training opportunities to young scientists, and further strengthen already existing capacities of the home institute.
UROGEN WELL D-ONE Principal research question: Can the UROGEN WELL D-ONE assay detect urinary tract infections and urethritis in clinical samples from patients attending Genitourinary Medicine outpatient clinics as accurately as standard laboratory microscopy and culture methodologies, while simultaneously identifying antimicrobial resistance? The primary aim of this study is to evaluate the rapid diagnostic assay UROGEN WELL D-ONE and determine if it can accurately detect infectious organisms causing UTI's and urethritis. Secondary research question: Is the antimicrobial resistance identified by the UROGEN WELL D-ONE assay accurate as compared to determination by the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute international guidelines? The secondary research objective will be to assess the accuracy of the breakpoint antimicrobial susceptibility measurement by the assay. This is particularly important with the global increase in antibiotic resistance, when the acquisition of mobile resistance genes to the remaining effective therapeutics is rising internationally.
International travel is well reported to be associated with acquisition of multidrug-resistant organisms, however, the impact of colonization of these multidrug-resistant organisms is currently uncertain. As colonization of multidrug-resistant organisms had been demonstrated to be associated with distinct intestinal microbiota composition and travellers constitute a generally healthy population with minimal antibiotics exposure; by evaluating serial stool samples before and after travel, the investigators can delineate a potential causal relationship between host intestinal microbiota and subsequent risk of acquisition of multidrug-resistant organisms.
Multidrug-resistant organisms (MDRO) present an increasingly serious public health threat to the global community.The prevalence of various MDRO, including carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE), has been increasing worldwide, and some have become endemic in certain countries. Data from the Hospital Authority showed that the number of carbapenemase- producing Enterobacteriaceae (CPE) cases increased from 36 in 2012 to 134 in 2015. A large outbreak of VRE involving >200 patients was recently reported in a tertiary hospital in Hong Kong. The primary site of colonization and persistence of most MDRO is in the gastrointestinal tract. Carriage can persist for months, with up to 40% of individuals still having colonization one year after hospital discharge. Outbreaks of MDRO have been reported in hospitals and long-term care facilities. Around 10% of patients colonized with MDRO would develop clinical infections by the same organism. Infections caused by these MDRO carry significant morbidity and high mortality of up to 50%, however, there is no proven therapy for eradication of intestinal colonization of MDRO. There is accumulating evidence showing that the gut microbiota plays an important role in the control of intestinal colonization and infection by pathogenic bacteria. Administration of obligate anaerobic commensal bacteria to mice has been shown to markedly reduce VRE colonization. Preliminary evidence, mainly from anecdotal reports, have shown that fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) in human carriers of MDRO were safe and potentially effective in eliminating intestinal colonization by various MDRO, including CRE and VRE, even in immunocompromised patients. Therefore, investigators hypothesize that FMT will be safe and potentially effective in eradicating intestinal colonization of CRE and VRE. This is a prospective pilot study to evaluate whether FMT is safe and effective to eradicate intestinal colonization of CRE and VRE.
The investigators' objective is to compare the risk of treatment failure* in children admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) with sepsis and managed by procalcitonin guided therapy for stopping of antibiotics ('PCT- guided therapy' group) with those managed with standard practices based on the evidence based guidelines ('control' group). Children with suspected or proven sepsis will be randomized to the PCT guided group or the standard practices group and will be followed up for the outcome measures that include treatment failure and mortality. The investigators plan to enroll 560 patients over a period of 3 years. The investigators believe that the proposed study will provide the answer to reducing unnecessary antibiotic usage in the PICU without causing any harm to the patient in the form of treatment failure and/or mortality.