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McKnight U, Farsides B, Soni S, Will C. Treating Mycoplasma genitalium (in pregnancy): a social and reproductive justice concern. Monash Bioeth Rev 2024:10.1007/s40592-024-00200-7. [PMID: 38990510 DOI: 10.1007/s40592-024-00200-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 06/14/2024] [Indexed: 07/12/2024]
Abstract
Antimicrobial Resistance is a threat to individual and to population health and to future generations, requiring "collective sacrifices" in order to preserve antibiotic efficacy. 'Who should make the sacrifices?' and 'Who will most likely make them?' are ethical concerns posited as potentially manageable through Antimicrobial Stewardship. Antimicrobial stewardship almost inevitably involves a form of clinical cost-benefit analysis that assesses the possible effects of antibiotics to treat a diagnosed infection in a particular patient. However, this process rarely accounts properly for patients - above and beyond assessments of potential (non)compliance or adherence to care regimes. Drawing on a vignette of a pregnant woman of colour and migrant diagnosed with Mycoplasma genitalium, a sexually transmissible bacterium, this article draws out some of the ethical, speculative, and practical tensions and complexities involved in Antimicrobial Stewardship. We argue that patients also engage in a form of cost-benefit analysis influenced by experiences of reproductive and social (in)justice and comprising speculative variables - to anticipate future possibilities. These processes have the potential to have effects above and beyond the specific infection antimicrobial stewardship was activated to address. We contend that efforts to practice and research antimicrobial stewardship should accommodate and incorporate these variables and acknowledge the structures they emerge with(in), even if their components remain unknown. This would involve recognising that antimicrobial stewardship is intricately connected to other social justice issues such as immigration policy, economic justice, access to appropriate medical care, racism, etc.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ulla McKnight
- The Sociology and Criminology Department, University of Sussex, Freeman Building G30, Falmer Brighton, BN1 9QE, UK.
| | | | - Suneeta Soni
- Consultant in Sexual Health and HIV, University Hospitals Sussex, Honorary Clinical Senior Lecturer, Brighton and Sussex Medical School, Falmer, UK
| | - Catherine Will
- The Sociology and Criminology Department, University of Sussex, Freeman Building G30, Falmer Brighton, BN1 9QE, UK
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Lyall B, Smith AKJ, Attwell K, Davis MDMDM. Antibiotics online: digital pharmacy marketplaces and pastiche medicine. MEDICAL HUMANITIES 2023; 49:713-724. [PMID: 37524441 DOI: 10.1136/medhum-2022-012574] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 06/12/2023] [Indexed: 08/02/2023]
Abstract
The internet enables access to information and the purchasing of medical products of various quality and legality. Research and regulatory attention have focused on the trafficking of illicit substances, potential physical harms of pharmaceuticals, and possibilities like financial fraud. However, there is far less attention paid to antibiotics and other antimicrobials used to treat infections. With online pharmacies affording greater access, caution around antibiotic use is needed due to the increasing health risks of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The COVID-19 pandemic has helped to normalise digital healthcare and contactless prescribing, amplifying the need for caution. Little is known of how antibiotics are consumed via digital pharmacy and implications for AMR prevention. To expand insight for AMR prevention policy in Australia and internationally, we use digital ethnographic methods to explore how digital pharmacies function in the context of health advice and policy related to AMR, commonly described as antimicrobial stewardship. We find that digital pharmacy marketplaces constitute 'pastiche medicine'. They curate access to pharmaceutical and information products that emulate biomedical authority combined with emphasis on the 'self-assembly' of healthcare. Pastiche medicine empowers the consumer but borrows biomedical expertise about antibiotics, untethering these goods from critical medicine information, and from AMR prevention strategies. We reflect on the implications of pastiche medicine for AMR policy, what the antibiotics case contributes to wider critical scholarship on digital pharmacy, and how medical humanities research might consider researching online consumption in future.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ben Lyall
- School of Media, Film and Journalism, Monash University, Caulfield, Victoria, Australia
| | - Anthony K J Smith
- Centre for Social Research in Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Katie Attwell
- School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
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Delivery of streptomycin to the rat colon by use of electrospun nanofibers. Sci Rep 2022; 12:21503. [PMID: 36513721 PMCID: PMC9747919 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-25769-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/18/2022] [Accepted: 12/05/2022] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Drug-loaded electrospun nanofibers are potential drug carrier systems that may optimize disease treatment while reducing the impact on commensal microbes. The feasibility of streptomycin-loaded pullulan nanofibers fabricated from a green electrospinning procedure using water as the solvent was assessed. We conducted a rat study including a group treated with streptomycin-loaded nanofibers (STR-F, n = 5), a group treated with similar concentrations of streptomycin in the drinking water (STR-W, n = 5), and a non-treated control group (CTR, n = 5). Streptomycin was successfully loaded into nanofibers and delivered by this vehicle, which minimized the quantity of the drug released in the ileal compartment of the gut. Ingested streptomycin-resistant E. coli colonized of up to 106 CFU/g feces, revealing a selective effect of streptomycin even when given in the low amounts allowed by the nanofiber-based delivery. 16S amplicon sequencing of the indigenous microbiota revealed differential effects in the three groups. An increase of Peptostreptococcaceae in the cecum of STR-F animals may indicate that the fermentation of nanofibers directly or indirectly promoted growth of bacteria within this family. Our results elucidate relevant properties of electrospun nanofibers as a novel vehicle for delivery of antimicrobials to the large intestine.
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Hutchison C. Wars and sweets: microbes, medicines and other moderns in and beyond the(ir) antibiotic era. MEDICAL HUMANITIES 2022; 48:medhum-2021-012366. [PMID: 35948395 PMCID: PMC9411908 DOI: 10.1136/medhum-2021-012366] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 07/01/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Once upon a time, many of us moderns dreamt that our future was bright, squeaky clean, germ-free. Now, we increasingly fear that bacterial resistance movements and hordes of viruses are cancelling our medicated performances, and threatening life as many of us have come to know it. In order for our modern antibiotic theatre of war to go on, we pray for salvation through our intensive surveillance of microbes, crusades for more rational antibiotic wars, increased recruitment of resistance fighters and development of antibiotic armaments through greater investment in our medical-industrial-war complex. But not all of us are in favour of the promise of perpetual antimicrobial wars, no matter how careful or rational their proponents aspire to be. An increasing vocal and diverse opposition has amassed in academic journals, newspapers and other fields of practice denouncing medicalisation and pharamceuticalisation of our daily lives, as well as our modern medicine as overly militaristic. In this paper, rather than simply rehearsing many of these well-made and meaning debates to convert you to yet another cause, I enrol them in redescriptions of our modern medical performances in the hope of awakening you from your aseptic dream. What follows is my invitation for you to re-enact our mythic antibiotic era in all its martial g(l)ory. I promise that it will bring you no physically harm, yet I can't promise it will leave your beliefs unscathed, as you follow its playful redescription of how our objective scientific descriptions, clinical prescriptions, economic strategies, political mandates and military orders, not to mention our warspeak, have always been deeply entangled with triumphs and devastations of The(ir) Great anti-Microbial Wars (aka our antibiotic era).
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Affiliation(s)
- Coll Hutchison
- Global Health and Development, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Faculty of Public Health and Policy, London, UK
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Khan SA. Decolonising global health by decolonising academic publishing. BMJ Glob Health 2022; 7:bmjgh-2021-007811. [PMID: 35301234 PMCID: PMC8931802 DOI: 10.1136/bmjgh-2021-007811] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/23/2021] [Accepted: 02/15/2022] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Shahzad Amjad Khan
- Department of Surgery, Independent Medical College, Faisalabad, Pakistan
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Spiegel M, Krzyżek P, Dworniczek E, Adamski R, Sroka Z. In Silico Screening and In Vitro Assessment of Natural Products with Anti-Virulence Activity against Helicobacter pylori. MOLECULES (BASEL, SWITZERLAND) 2021; 27:molecules27010020. [PMID: 35011255 PMCID: PMC8746548 DOI: 10.3390/molecules27010020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/16/2021] [Revised: 12/15/2021] [Accepted: 12/20/2021] [Indexed: 12/16/2022]
Abstract
Helicobacter pylori is one of the most frequent human pathogens and a leading etiological agent of various gastric diseases. As stringent response, coordinated by a SpoT protein, seems to be crucial for the survivability of H. pylori, the main goal of this article was to use in silico computational studies to find phytochemical compounds capable of binding to the active site of SpoT from H. pylori and confirm the ability of the most active candidates to interfere with the virulence of this bacterium through in vitro experiments. From 791 natural substances submitted for the virtual screening procedure, 10 were chosen and followed for further in vitro examinations. Among these, dioscin showed the most interesting parameters (the lowest MIC, the highest anti-biofilm activity in static conditions, and a relatively low stimulation of morphological transition into coccoids). Therefore, in the last part, we extended the research with a number of further experiments and observed the ability of dioscin to significantly reduce the formation of H. pylori biofilm under Bioflux-generated flow conditions and its capacity for additive enhancement of the antibacterial activity of all three commonly used antibiotics (clarithromycin, metronidazole, and levofloxacin). Based on these results, we suggest that dioscin may be an interesting candidate for new therapies targeting H. pylori survivability and virulence.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maciej Spiegel
- Department of Pharmacognosy and Herbal Medicines, Wroclaw Medical University, Borowska 211A, 50-556 Wroclaw, Poland;
- Correspondence: (M.S.); (P.K.)
| | - Paweł Krzyżek
- Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Wroclaw Medical University, Chalubinskiego 4, 50-368 Wroclaw, Poland;
- Correspondence: (M.S.); (P.K.)
| | - Ewa Dworniczek
- Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Wroclaw Medical University, Chalubinskiego 4, 50-368 Wroclaw, Poland;
| | - Ryszard Adamski
- Laboratory of Microscopic Techniques, Institute of Genetics and Microbiology, University of Wroclaw, Przybyszewskiego 63, 50-001 Wroclaw, Poland;
| | - Zbigniew Sroka
- Department of Pharmacognosy and Herbal Medicines, Wroclaw Medical University, Borowska 211A, 50-556 Wroclaw, Poland;
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Tompson AC, Manderson L, Chandler CIR. Understanding antibiotic use: practices, structures and networks. JAC Antimicrob Resist 2021; 3:dlab150. [PMID: 34617017 PMCID: PMC8488471 DOI: 10.1093/jacamr/dlab150] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/27/2022] Open
Abstract
In this article, we consider how social sciences can help us to understand the rising use of antibiotics globally. Drawing on ethnography as a way to research how we are in the world, we explore scholarship that situates antibiotic use in relation to interactions of pathogens, humans, animals and the environment in the context of globalization, changes in agriculture and urbanization. We group this research into three areas: practices, structures and networks. Much of the public health and related social research concerning antimicrobial resistance has focused on antibiotic use as a practice, with research characterizing how antibiotics are used by patients, farmers, fishermen, drug sellers, clinicians and others. Researchers have also positioned antibiotic use as emergent of political-economic structures, shedding light on how working and living conditions, quality of care, hygiene and sanitation foster reliance on antibiotics. A growing body of research sees antibiotics as embedded in networks that, in addition to social and institutional networks, comprise physical, technical and historical connections such as guidelines, supply chains and reporting systems. Taken together, this research emphasizes the multiple ways that antibiotics have become built into daily life. Wider issues, which may be invisible without explication through ethnographic approaches, need to be considered when addressing antibiotic use. Adopting the complementary vantage points of practices, networks and structures can support the diversification of our responses to AMR.
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Affiliation(s)
- A C Tompson
- Department of Global Health & Development, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, 15–17 Tavistock Place, London WC1H 9SH, UK
| | - L Manderson
- School of Public Health, University of the Witwatersrand, 27 St Andrews Road, Parktown 2193, Johannesburg, South Africa
| | - C I R Chandler
- Department of Global Health & Development, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, 15–17 Tavistock Place, London WC1H 9SH, UK
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