NIGERIA – Respected Nigerian microbiologist Dr. Ugochukwu Obiakornobi Anieto has discovered a novel antibiotic named Anietocin that can be used to treat antibiotic-resistant microbial infections.

Anietocin will be used for the treatment of antibiotic resistant microbial infections, surgical and sterile environments and point of care antibiotic prescription.

Antimicrobials are medications that are used to prevent and treat infections in humans, animals, and plants including antibiotics, antivirals, antifungals and antiparasitic medication.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites evolve and no longer respond to antibiotics hence making infections more difficult to treat and increasing the risk of disease spread, severe illness and death.

The cost of AMR to national economies and health systems is significant because it reduces the productivity of patients and caregivers by requiring longer hospital stays and more expensive and intensive care.

Subsequently, Dr. Ugochukwu discovered a new antibiotic to combat the rapid emergence of antibiotic resistant bacteria which endangers the efficacy of antibiotics resulting to infections becoming increasingly difficult or impossible to treat.

Anietocin presents a new strain of Pseudomonas spp. bacteria that produces antimicrobial compounds which are effective against both Gram-positive and multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria.

Currently, there is a medical team working to improve the chemical extraction process of the novel antibiotic along with understanding the metabolomics of the bacterium to address large scale manufacturing opportunities.

The antibiotic offers the promise of alleviating the substantial health and economic burden on healthcare systems if pharmaceutical companies can utilize the bacterium and maximize its effectiveness to treat prevailing bacterial infections in patients.

Changes on treatment of Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis

Meanwhile, the TB Alliance has applauded the World Health Organization on the new guidelines for treating drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) where almost all patients with DR-TB can be treated in six months with an all-oral regimen.

The new guidelines allow for the programmatic implementation of treating almost all forms of DR-TB with either BPaLM (a combination of bedaquiline, pretomanid, linezolid and moxifloxacin) or BPaL (bedaquiline, pretomanid and linezolid),” the World Health Organization reports.

The TB Alliance pointed out that the new guidelines create a path forward for handling many cases of DR-TB with only six months of all-oral treatment with simplified drug regimens that have manageable side effects.

The organization further highlighted that the oral treatment of drug-resistant tuberculosis has cure rates on the same order of magnitude as the treatment for drug-sensitive TB due to long-term, sustained investments in TB research and development.

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