Prevention Matters

...antibiotics and STD screening.

This week CDC released its annual sexually transmitted diseases surveillance report, which showed that chlamydia and syphilis rates in the U.S. continued to rise in 2009. However, gonorrhea reached its lowest level in almost 70 years. All three STDs can be easily treated with antibiotics but can have serious consequences, including infertility and organ damage, if left untreated.

According to the report, chlamydia rates increased by 3% last year, with 409 cases per 100,000 people—representing an all-time high for reported chlamydia infections. The rate increased by almost 20% since 2006. On a positive note, CDC believes that the increase is likely attributed to expanded screening, and not an increase in the disease.

Unfortunately, large disparities still exist among racial and ethnic minority groups, with young African Americans baring a large burden of the disease.

STD screening can help detect disease early and, combined with treatment, is an effective way to protect a person’s health and reduce transmission to partners. One of the continuing problems is that less than half of the people who should be screened for STDs, do so. To help improve screening, as well as prevention and treatment of chlamydia, Partnership for Prevention convenes and leads the National Chlamydia Coalition, whose mission is to reduce the rates of Chlamydia and its harmful effects among sexually active adolescent and young adults.

According to British researchers, patients who are over-prescribed antibiotics may develop drug resistance that lasts up to a year. This makes them and the rest of the population more susceptible to problems if more serious treatment is needed.

The researchers analyzed 24 previous studies of antibiotic resistance and found that the more antibiotics prescribed for coughs, flu-like illnesses and urine infections, the more resistant to the antibiotics the bacteria become.

"The effect is greatest in the month immediately after treatment, but may last for up to a year, and this residual effect may be a driver for high levels of resistance in the community," said Alastair Hay, a consultant senior lecturer in primary health care at Bristol University, who led the research.

Experts say the over-prescription of antibiotics is a “vicious cycle” and the only way to turn it around is to prescribe the drugs only when it is absolutely necessary in the first place.

Chantal Morel and Elias Mossialos, specialists in economics and health policy from the London School of Economics, believe financial incentives should be used to encourage drug companies to invest in research to find, test and develop new antibiotics and that there is “a public health as well as economic justification for intervention.”

Brandi Robinson
Tobacco Control Program Associate
Partnership for Prevention

Due to the improper use of antibiotics, Gonnorrhea may become untreatable in the near future. The World Health Organziation reported yesterday that there is now "widespread resistance" to first-line antibiotics, which are cheaper than other options, to fight the bacterium that causes Gonnorrhea.

Some countries, such as Australia and Japan are now also reporting treatment failures with a class of antibiotics that is the last line of defense against the disease. The WHO and CDC have developed an action plan to begin identifying other treatments.

Left untreated, gonorrhea can result in infertility, pelvic inflammatory disease, ectopic pregnancy, and infections in newborn children. It also increases the likelihood of acquiring and transmitting HIV.

Christianne Johnson
Program Manager
Partnership for Prevention

The proposed ban on text messaging at the wheel by interstate truck and bus drivers was named the “Best Prevention Idea of the Week,” while the possibility of gonorrhea becoming a drug-resistant superbug was named the “Worst Prevention Idea of the Week."

The “Best/Worst” awards are announced each week in “Prevention Matters,” the blog of Partnership for Prevention. Nominees are submitted by Partnership staff as well as the general public, and are voted on by the staff. Partnership for Prevention is a nonpartisan organization of business, nonprofit and government leaders who are working to make evidence-based disease prevention and health promotion a national priority. More information is available at http://www.prevent.org/.

BEST

Government Set to Ban Texting by Truck, Bus Drivers

The Transportation Department last Wednesday proposed a ban on text messaging at the wheel by interstate truck and bus drivers, following up on its call to reduce distractions that lead to crashes. The proposal would make permanent an interim ban announced in January by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, applying to drivers of buses and commercial trucks over 10,000 pounds. The drivers could face civil or criminal penalties. The proposal "keeps our commitment to making our roads safer by reducing the threat of distracted driving," LaHood said.

WORST

Gonorrhea Close to Gaining Superbug Status

Unless medical experts devise a new way to treat it, gonorrhea -- the world's second most common sexually transmitted infection, after chlamydia -- will soon become a drug-resistant superbug. "This is a very clever bacteria. If this problem isn't addressed, there is a real possibility that gonorrhea will become a very difficult infection to treat," Catherine Ison, a British gonorrhea specialist, told Reuters. Right now, gonorrhea is treated with a single antibiotic dose, of either cefixime or ceftriaxone. But some strains of the illness are becoming resistant to both drugs, meaning treatment could become increasingly difficult without innovations.

The test to cut down on unnecessary use of antibiotics was named the “Best Prevention Idea of the Week,” while cities shortening yellow lights to nab drivers with a ticket was named “Worst Prevention Idea of the Week.”

The “Best/Worst” awards are announced each week in “Prevention Matters,” the blog of Partnership for Prevention. Nominees are submitted by Partnership staff as well as the general public, and are voted on by the staff. Partnership for Prevention is a nonpartisan organization of business, nonprofit and government leaders who are working to make evidence-based disease prevention and health promotion a national priority. More information is available at http://www.prevent.or/

BEST

Simple Test Could Cut Excessive Antibiotic Use

German researchers found that testing for a marker of bacterial infection known as procalcitonin (PCT) helped identify patients whose respiratory tract infections would respond to antibiotics, and stopped others being offered unnecessary drugs. Respiratory infections are very common and doctors are taught to prescribe antibiotics on the basis of features like sputum or fever, which suggest there may be bacterial infection. But this judgment is not always easy, the researchers said, and lab tests can help sort bacterial from viral infections. Excessive prescribing of antibiotics adds to healthcare costs and to the worldwide problem of multi-drug resistant bacteria, or "superbugs," like MRSA.

WORST

Cities Shortening Yellow Traffic Lights for Deadly Profit

Some cities have been shortening yellow lights to nab drivers with a ticket. But studies show that they're raking in the bucks at the expense of public safety. "With all of the stories we hear on a daily basis, there is little doubt that the desire for ticket revenue trumps safety concerns," Gary Biller, executive director of the National Motorists Association told AlterNet. "A quick current example is California's governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who a few weeks ago proposed state budget including a proposal to add speed sensors to 500 existing red-light cameras. The reason? Safety wasn't mentioned, but an expected additional annual revenue of $338 million was."

An Arkansas program that has produced nearly 100,000 fewer smokers over the last seven years was named Partnership for Prevention's "Best Prevention Idea of the Week," while the ethanol industry’s practice of adding antibiotics to their fermentation tanks was named “Worst Prevention Idea of the Week.”

The Best/Worst Idea awards are a regular feature of Prevention Matters , the blog of Partnership for Prevention. Each week, Partnership for Prevention's staff will choose the designees based on nominations of items in the previous week's news submitted by members, staff and the public at large. To submit a nomination or for more information, contact Damon Thompson at dthompson@prevent.org.


BEST

Arkansas Program Spurs Big Drop in Adult Smoking
http://www.areawidenews.com/story/1555203.html

New survey information shows there are nearly 100,000 fewer smokers in Arkansas since the beginning of the Arkansas Department of Health's (ADH) Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Program in 2002. When the program started in 2002, 25.1 percent adults smoked in the state; more current data show that those numbers have decreased to approximately 20.7 percent. The Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Program is funded through the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement. Through community and school prevention programs, a media and public relations campaign known as Stamp Out Smoking, a statewide quitline and cessation services for tobacco users looking to quit, TPCP continues to see the positive effects of its efforts.


WORST

Antibiotics Used in Ethanol Production
http://www.iatp.org/iatp/publications.cfm?accountID=258&refID=106420

Ethanol producers are adding antibiotics to the fermentation process to keep fermentation tanks free of bacteria, a practice that the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy says may be contributing to antibiotic resistance. The nutrient-rich residue from the fermentation tanks, a co-product of ethanol production, is being sold as livestock feed. Recent research has identified several strains of bacteria living in ethanol fermentation tanks that are resistant to penicillin and virginiamycin, the most commonly used antibiotics in ethanol production.

The Obama administration wants to ban many routine uses of antibiotics in farm animals in hopes of reducing the spread of dangerous bacteria in humans. Specifically, it wants to ban feeding antibiotics to healthy chickens, pigs and cattle to encourage rapid growth, as well as the use of antibiotics by farmers in animals without the supervision of a veterinarian.

Both practices lead to the development of bacteria that are immune to many treatments. The legislation is supported by the American Medical Association, among other groups, but opposed by farm organizations like the National Pork Producers Council.