Antimicrobial Resistance and the Test Target Treat Initiative
Antimicrobial resistance is a huge global health issue and contributes significantly to patient mortality and rising healthcare costs across the world. There is a clear need to quickly and accurately identify the nature of a pathogen in order to define the most appropriate treatment strategy with the optimal clinical result.
The Test Target Treat™ initiative from Alere empowers you to make targeted treatment decisions sooner with rapid diagnostics, reducing inappropriate antimicrobial use and the spread of resistance. We hope to create a shift in treatment trends, moving away from the broad over-prescription of antibiotics, which spawned the growing prevalence of serious healthcare-associated infections like MRSA, towards more targeted therapy.
What we do
Alere offers a broad range of rapid diagnostic tools and educational resources to aid effective Antimicrobial Stewardship. Keep up to date with the latest news on global antibiotic resistance and stewardship.
Content produced by the Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics (APUA) through an unrestricted educational grant from Alere Inc.
The Resistance Crisis
Antibiotics are a precious component of the healthcare workers' armamentarium, but they have become a threatened medical resource. The prevalence of antibiotic resistant infections is growing faster than new antibiotics are being developed. For these reasons, each prescription decision impacts the effectiveness of antibiotics for all patients.
APUA's aim is to foster prudent use of antimicrobials by minimizing unnecessary use, targeting therapy to the organism, and reserving broad-spectrum agents for the most urgent needs. This review provides an historical perspective on the antibiotic resistance problem and the unique challenges that it presents to healthcare practitioners, and describes the multifaceted approaches of antimicrobial stewardship that are urgently needed to help preserve these critical resources for generations to come.
Stuart B. Levy, MD 2014
Antimicrobial Misuse and Resistance
Today's global crisis in antimicrobial resistance should never have come as a big surprise.
Consequences of Antimicrobial Misuse
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are no global data on the number of cases or fatalities due to highly resistant pathogens.
Antimicrobial Stewardship Implementation
In its broader holistic sense, antibiotic stewardship is the careful and responsible management of antibiotic resources in the interest of long-term sustainability.
