World Health Day-Combating Drug Resistance
1
EquNev Capital Private Limited, Bangalore, New Delhi, Dubai, Detroit New Google CEO Lany Page reshuffles exec team. EV CAPITAL lnfosys, Mah Satyam among the four shortlisted for lrda IT project. RIL may stop supply to non- priority sector to meet government order. Bengaluru • Monday • 11 April 2011 1 Technornics ConsumerScope . witb1 Day on 7th April bigb- a very unusual situ- ation facing the World Health Order. How do we combat drug resistance that occurs when microor- ganisms such as bacterill, viruses. fungi and pam- sites cllange in v.rays that render the medications used to cure the infections they cause ineffective. When the mic:roorgrulisms become resistant to most antimi- crobials !bey are often referred to as "superbugs''. India is at a brink as tbere a major concern because a drug-resistant infections of malaria, TB, HN may ldlL can to others, and imposes huge costs to individuals and society. Last year, in my column on "superbu bugs our healthcare, I luld highlight- ed tbe issues western world researchers may play with an emerging sci- enti fte and medical super power lite lndiiL However. WHO's call for action on drug resiSiance supertlugs is to avert future global dis.aster, the challenge is whal to do and how to do il Despite the mass of liter- a1ure on drug resistance superbugs, there is depressingly little on the uue oosts of resistance and the effectiveness of medi- cines. Given tbe lack of data. in tbe face of a grow- ing realisation that actions need to be lllken now, to combat a global menace that can tate the world health order back to the pre-antibioti.cs era. We are talking of a poleoti.al bio- logical World War Ill! WHO's Annageddonis a 6-points strategy to Ude O\'er the biological World War ill and announce tbe world's victory over the superbugs that kill over 60% of people who acquire these infections from the superbugs. lbese include planning the fund- ing for tbe global world war on the superbugs. Slreogtheoing survei 1- lance, eo wing medical reinforcements to oombal superbugs allack, armisti.ce on the blatant abuse of antibiotics by medical practiti.oners and care gi\'ers, enhancing the commando's for infection prevention and control and fmally fostering the NATO-like alliance between the scientific, philanthropic and health industry to foster innova- tions and R&D to produce new stealth-bombing aoti.bioti.cs against the superbugs. Tbe current issue is lack of data that can really describe the size and the nature of the enemy weare oombalti.ng. lnformati.on. communications and tech- nology (J CJ) can bridge the gaps in this war against the superbugs. Many chal- lenges exist to elfecti.vely meeting these criti.cal information needs. Firstly, how do we get the clini- cians who are often unav.-are of the exisleoce of relevant informati.on resources wgned with !CT technologies. Second- ly, the ICT systems need to be comprehensive in their coverage. Thirdly, issues of Ume elfteieocy, accessi- bility at poinl of care, and automati.c provision of informati.on for decisions and analyti.cs. Fourtb, customisability to account for local fact001 because of significan.t local variation in uper- bugs susceptibi U ty. Next is the issue of ease of updat- ing content and notifYing the users in the WHO. regulatory bodies, and care given. Last but not the le.ast the cost of such JCT systems. We have learnt lessons from the western and adva.nc:Jed nati.oo.s on how tbeir different !CT systems do not syoc lead- ing to expensive soluti.ons in integrations and data Slandards. Open source is the way to go in combating this war rather than open- ing another war in tbe ICT fronl F10ally, one major force that needs to be included is tbe growing influence of social media in oombatling the uper- bugs when putti.og out the implementati.on guide- lines. We have some lessons from the way global clini- cal trials have been con- dUOied and the information collecled from different sites for regulatory sub- missions. 'There are several open source bio survei 1- Jance, clinical trials sys- tems that have worked per- fectly. We need to sUet to the best in the open source world to ensure that there is co-operation and data exchange to win Ibis bio- logical world war against the superbugs that may cllange the world health order and tate us to the pre.anli bioti.cs er11.
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My fortnightly column, A Dose of IT
Transcript of World Health Day-Combating Drug Resistance
EquNev Capital Private Limited, Bangalore, New Delhi, Dubai, Detroit
New Google CEO Lany Page reshuffles exec team.
EQU~ EV
CAPITAL
lnfosys, Mah Satyam among the four shortlisted for lrda IT project.
RIL may stop supply to nonpriority sector to meet government order.
Bengaluru • Monday • 11 April 2011 1
Technornics ConsumerScope .
Fight~·s"uperb.ugs witb1 !Ope.ll~.So_ur.ee ·
Llw~t Day on 7th April bigb~gbted a very unusual situation facing the World Health Order. How do we combat drug resistance that occurs when microorganisms such as bacterill, viruses. fungi and pamsites cllange
in v.rays that render the medications used to cure the infections they cause ineffective. When the mic:roorgrulisms become resistant to most antimicrobials !bey are often referred to as "superbugs''. India is at a brink as tbere a major concern because a drug-resistant infections of malaria, TB, HN may ldlL can spre~ to others, and imposes huge costs to individuals and society. Last year, in my column on "superbu ~ bugs our healthcare, I luld highlighted tbe issues western world researchers may play with an emerging scienti fte and medical super power lite lndiiL However. WHO's call for action on drug resiSiance supertlugs is to avert future global dis.aster, the challenge is whal to do and how to do il
Despite the mass of litera1ure on drug resistance superbugs, there is depressingly little on the uue oosts of resistance and the effectiveness of medicines. Given tbe lack of data. in tbe face of a growing realisation that actions need to be lllken now, to combat a global menace that can tate the world health order back to the pre-antibioti.cs era. We are talking of a poleoti.al biological World War Ill!
WHO's Annageddonis a 6-points strategy to Ude O\'er the biological World War ill and announce tbe world's victory over the superbugs that kill over 60% of people who acquire these infections from the superbugs. lbese include planning the funding for tbe global world war on the superbugs. Slreogtheoing survei 1-lance, eo wing medical reinforcements to oombal superbugs allack, armisti.ce on the blatant abuse of antibiotics by medical practiti.oners and care gi\'ers, enhancing the commando's for infection prevention and control and fmally fostering the NATO-like alliance
between the scientific, philanthropic and health industry to foster innovations and R&D to produce new stealth-bombing aoti.bioti.cs against the superbugs.
Tbe current issue is lack of data that can really describe the size and the nature of the enemy weare
oombalti.ng. lnformati.on. communications and technology (JCJ) can bridge the gaps in this war against the superbugs. Many challenges exist to elfecti.vely meeting these criti.cal information needs. Firstly, how do we get the clinicians who are often unav.-are of the exisleoce of relevant informati.on resources wgned with !CT technologies. Secondly, the ICT systems need to be comprehensive in their coverage. Thirdly, issues of Ume elfteieocy, accessibility at poinl of care, and automati.c provision of informati.on for decisions and analyti.cs.
Fourtb, customisability to account for local fact001 because of significan.t local variation in uperbugs susceptibi U ty. Next is the issue of ease of updating content and notifYing the users in the WHO. go~·ernments. regulatory bodies, doc~ and care given. Last but not the le.ast the cost of such JCT systems. We have learnt
lessons from the western and adva.nc:Jed nati.oo.s on how tbeir different !CT systems do not syoc leading to expensive soluti.ons in integrations and data Slandards. Open source is the way to go in combating this war rather than opening another war in tbe ICT fronl F10ally, one major force that needs to be included is tbe growing influence of social media in oombatling the uperbugs when putti.og out the implementati.on guidelines.
We have some lessons from the way global clinical trials have been condUOied and the information collecled from different sites for regulatory submissions. 'There are several open source bio survei 1-Jance, clinical trials systems that have worked perfectly. We need to sUet to the best in the open source world to ensure that there is co-operation and data exchange to win Ibis biological world war against the superbugs that may cllange the world health order and tate us to the pre.anli bioti.cs er11.
