Exploring Antimicrobials from the Flora and Fauna of Marine: Opportunities and Limitations

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 507-514 ◽  
Author(s):  
Krishnamoorthy Venkateskumar ◽  
Subramani Parasuraman ◽  
Leow Y. Chuen ◽  
Veerasamy Ravichandran ◽  
Subramani Balamurgan

About 95% of earth living space lies deep below the ocean’s surface and it harbors extraordinary diversity of marine organisms. Marine biodiversity is an exceptional reservoir of natural products, bioactive compounds, nutraceuticals and other potential compounds of commercial value. Timeline for the development of the drug from a plant, synthetic and other alternative sources is too lengthy. Exploration of the marine environment for potential bioactive compounds has gained focus and huge opportunity lies ahead for the exploration of such vast resources in the ocean. Further, the evolution of superbugs with increasing resistance to the currently available drugs is alarming and it needs coordinated efforts to resolve them. World Health Organization recommends the need and necessity to develop effective bioactive compounds to combat problems associated with antimicrobial resistance. Based on these factors, it is imperative to shift the focus towards the marine environment for potential bioactive compounds that could be utilized to tackle antimicrobial resistance. Current research trends also indicate the huge strides in research involving marine environment for drug discovery. The objective of this review article is to provide an overview of marine resources, recently reported research from marine resources, challenges, future research prospects in the marine environment.

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 60
Author(s):  
Jyoti Acharya ◽  
Maria Zolfo ◽  
Wendemagegn Enbiale ◽  
Khine Wut Yee Kyaw ◽  
Meika Bhattachan ◽  
...  

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global problem, and Nepal is no exception. Countries are expected to report annually to the World Health Organization on their AMR surveillance progress through a Global Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance System, in which Nepal enrolled in 2017. We assessed the quality of AMR surveillance data during 2019–2020 at nine surveillance sites in Province 3 of Nepal for completeness, consistency, and timeliness and examined barriers for non-reporting sites. Here, we present the results of this cross-sectional descriptive study of secondary AMR data from five reporting sites and barriers identified through a structured questionnaire completed by representatives at the five reporting and four non-reporting sites. Among the 1584 records from the reporting sites assessed for consistency and completeness, 77–92% were consistent and 88–100% were complete, with inter-site variation. Data from two sites were received by the 15th day of the following month, whereas receipt was delayed by a mean of 175 days at three other sites. All four non-reporting sites lacked dedicated data personnel, and two lacked computers. The AMR surveillance data collection process needs improvement in completeness, consistency, and timeliness. Non-reporting sites need support to meet the specific requirements for data compilation and sharing.


Children ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (11) ◽  
pp. 195
Author(s):  
Emma Woolley ◽  
Shirley Wyver

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends exclusive breastfeeding for six months and continuation of breastfeeding for up to two years. Formal child care has an important role in supporting breastfeeding, as many Australian infants commence care before two years of age. Currently, little is known about support or barriers in child care contexts. The present qualitative instrumental case study explores practices which protect, promote and support breastfeeding at a child care centre located in the Australian Capital Territory’s outer suburbs. Extending from a previously published collective case study, a cultural-institutional focus of analysis was used to explore the roles of proximity, flexibility and communication in supporting breastfeeding within a child care centre located close to an infant’s home. Interviews with centre staff and mothers, triangulated with observations of the centre environment and policy documents provide insight into the environment. Affirming the roles of flexibility in routine and staff rostering and two-way communication, findings suggest longer-term benefits may be derived from selecting a child care centre close to an infant’s home, provided mothers can overcome barriers to breastmilk expression in the workplace. The study recognises the role of non-lactating caregivers in the transition to formal child care, and of the support culture for educators who breastfeed. This study extends the knowledge base of breastfeeding support interventions in the child care setting to inform future research and policy.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 113-120
Author(s):  
Athaya Taufiqy

December 2019, COVID-19 was first reported in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a worldwide pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic has focused attention on the mental health of the various affected populations, medical students being one of the more vulnerable groups. Therefore, this literature review aims to find out how the mental health of Faculty of Medicine students during the COVID-19 pandemic, so that it can be used as learning material to always maintain mental health stability. The method used in this study is a literature review and literature search which was carried out by collecting several electronic journals such as PubMed, NCBI and Google Scholar. Conducted by reviewing journals related to the mental health of medical faculty students during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study involved 49 library sources from 2018-2020. From 7,143 students, 0.9% of them experienced severe anxiety, 2.7% moderate, and 21.3% experienced mild anxiety. In addition, delay in academic activities is a risk factor for experiencing symptoms of anxiety. 40% of students also experience financial difficulties, in terms of e-learning platforms, this problem is a challenge for medical students because financial and social factors can be an obstacle to the development and implementation of effective online learning programs. Future research is urgently needed to provide a better explanation of the tips needed for students in adapting to the changes that occur in order to lead a mentally healthy life in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 118
Author(s):  
Wessam Atif ◽  
Mohamed Farid ◽  
Kota Kodama

The World Health Organization states that everyone should play a role in contributing to food hygiene. In this article, we introduce the first online consumer-based platform for restaurant hygiene reviews, a platform that may provide a transparent channel for consumers to play their role in food hygiene. While public purchase decisions may be significantly affected by online consumer reviews, currently there are no dedicated websites for consumers to add restaurant hygiene reviews (RHRs), which is an expression coined in this article. The new platform helps consumers post food hygiene reviews by answering a series of questions while visiting any restaurant, and it also gives them an option to report food hygiene violations to the authorities. This website may help future research if the data collected is analyzed to understand trends in food hygiene violations noticed by the public; we also plan to have annual awards for the best restaurant in food hygiene based on consumer reviews. The questionnaire provided will also contribute to consumer food hygiene education. This platform is expected to bring food hygiene into the context of daily life and add to pressure on the restaurant industry to follow food hygiene requirements, thereby leading to a positive impact on environmental health.


2022 ◽  
Vol 2022 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Ying Xiong ◽  
Jingwen Wei ◽  
Yujia Cai ◽  
Yang Zhang ◽  
Li Feng ◽  
...  

Objective. The objective of the current study was to analyze the research hotspot of drug treatment for tuberculosis via top literatures. Materials and Methods. A retrospective analysis was performed on June 7th, 2021. Literatures were searched on the Web of Science Core Collection to identify the top 50 cited literatures related to drug treatment of tuberculosis. The characteristics of the literatures were identified. The outcomes included authorship, journal, study type, year of publication, and institution. Cooccurrence network analysis and visualization were conducted using the VOS viewer (Version 1.6.16; Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands). Results. The top 50 cited literatures were cited 308 to 2689 times and were published between 1982 and 2014. The most studied drugs were the first-line drugs such as isoniazid and rifampicin ( n = 22 ), and drug-resistant tuberculosis was most frequently reported ( n = 16 ). They were published in 18 journals, and the New England Journal of Medicine published the most literatures ( n = 18 ), followed by the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine ( n = 7 ), and the Lancet ( n = 6 ). The authors were from 13 countries, and the authors from the USA published most of the literatures ( n = 30 ), while authors from other countries published less than five literatures. The CDC in the USA ( n = 4 ), the World Health Organization (WHO) ( n = 3 ), and the American Philosophical Society ( n = 3 ) were the leading institutions, and only two authors published at least two top-cited literatures as first authors. Conclusions. This study provides insights into the development and most important literatures on drug therapy for tuberculosis and evidence for future research on tuberculosis treatment.


2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (42) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hyukmin Lee ◽  
Eun-Jeong Yoon ◽  
Dokyun Kim ◽  
Seok Hoon Jeong ◽  
Jong Hee Shin ◽  
...  

Surveillance plays a pivotal role in overcoming antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in bacterial pathogens, and a variety of surveillance systems have been set up and employed in many countries. In 2015, the World Health Organization launched the Global Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance System (GLASS) as a part of the global action plan to enhance national and global surveillance and research. The aims of GLASS are to foster development of national surveillance systems and to enable collection, analysis and sharing of standardised, comparable and validated data on AMR between different countries. The South Korean AMR surveillance system, Kor-GLASS, is compatible with the GLASS platform and was established in 2016 and based on the principles of representativeness, specialisation, harmonisation and localisation. In this report, we summarise principles and processes in order to share our experiences with other countries planning to establish a national AMR surveillance system. The pilot operation of Kor-GLASS allowed us to understand the national burden of specific infectious diseases and the status of bacterial AMR. Issues pertaining to high costs and labour-intensive operation were raised during the pilot, and improvements are being made.


Author(s):  
Pavitra Solanki ◽  
Yasmin Sultana ◽  
Satyavir Singh

Everybody is at risk of being infected by drug-resistant microscopic organisms. Managing with sickness has never been less demanding within the history of our species. At the current rate of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in microbes, specialists foresee that battling infections tuberculosis, HIV, and intestinal sickness will become more complicated. Antimicrobial resistance is rendering numerous life-saving drugs useless. Antibiotic-resistant microbes, known as “superbugs,” are getting to be more various and more harmful, thanks to the proceeding abuse of anti-microbials. Natural medication offers an alternative to these progressively ineffectual drugs. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), traditional medicine is a holistic term enclosing diverse health practices. Concurring to a report by the College of Maryland Therapeutic Center, turmeric's volatile oil serves as a common anti-microbial.


Author(s):  
Catherine Berry

This chapter describes the worrisome trend of resistance development in antibacterial agents with exponential increases in resistance to the most effective classes of antibiotics. Described by the World Health Organization as a major global health security threat, the annual deaths from drug-resistant infection are projected to increase from 700,000 to 10 million by 2050. This chapter outlines the impact of antimicrobial resistance in humanitarian settings and provides practical approaches which can be used by organizations and health providers.


2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (11) ◽  
pp. 947-954 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danielle Zweers ◽  
Alexander de Graeff ◽  
Jette Duijn ◽  
Everlien de Graaf ◽  
Petronella O. Witteveen ◽  
...  

Introduction: Anxiety is a common symptom in the palliative phase, and symptom management depends on the competencies of individual professionals. This study aims to get insight into the needs of anxious hospice patients with advanced cancer regarding support. Method: Semi-structured interviews were performed in admitted hospice patients with cancer. Patients admitted from May 2017 till May 2018 were eligible whether or not they were anxious. Interviews were analyzed and coded within predefined topics. Results: Fourteen patients were included: 10 females, median age 71, and median World Health Organization performance score 3. Most patients were highly educated. Thirteen patients were interviewed within 6 months before death. Information, open communication, sense of control, safety, adequate symptom management, and respect for patients’ coping strategy were the 6 main expressed needs. Conclusion: Assessing patients’ needs regarding anxiety provided important angles where health-care professionals can make a difference in order to support anxious patients in their final stage of life to realize tailored palliative care. Future research should focus on the development of a systematic approach for health-care professionals to manage anxiety in daily care of terminal patients.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document