Incorporating COVID-19–particular components into an current antimicrobial stewardship program (ASP) framework was related to lowered antibiotic use and resistance at a safety-net hospital in Chicago, researchers reported as we speak in Antimicrobial Stewardship & Healthcare Epidemiology.
COVID-19 posed a big diagnostic problem for clinicians within the early months of the pandemic, as a result of signs usually appeared indistinguishable from decrease respiratory tract infections attributable to micro organism or different viruses. That, together with a scarcity of particular therapies, resulted in a surge of antibiotic use (AU) in hospitals, which in flip led to a rise in antimicrobial resistance (AMR). To deal with this concern, clinicians and pharmacists at Saint Anthony Hospital in Chicago added tips that discouraged the routine use of antibiotics for COVID-19 and suggested in opposition to broad-spectrum antipseudomonal use to a beforehand established syndrome-based ASP.
To evaluate the impression of the rules, researchers from Saint Anthony and the College of Illinois at Chicago examined information on AU and AMR from 2018 by means of 2021. They discovered that the typical quarterly antibiotic days of remedy (DOT) per 1,000 patient-days elevated by 8.7% (from 359 to 391 DOT) from 2019 to 2020, however then declined by 18.6% (from 391 to 318 DOT) in 2021. Quarterly antibiotic DOT peaked at 440 DOT in the course of the preliminary COVID-19 surge, however the peaks have been smaller with every subsequent surge, falling by 29% from the preliminary surge to the Omicron surge.
Potential technique for future pandemics
In the meantime, the incidence fee per 1,000 patient-days for extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)-producing organisms elevated from 2.13 in 2019 to three.58 in 2020, earlier than lowering to 1.84 in 2021. For carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales, the incidence elevated from 0 in 2018 to .43 in 2019 and additional to 1.79 in 2020, earlier than returning to 0 in 2021.
“This implies that ASP not solely guided AU but additionally might have contributed to the mitigation of AMR,” the examine authors wrote. “By adapting this intervention to incorporate COVID-19-specific components, we efficiently managed the challenges posed by the pandemic.”
They add that leveraging ASP interventions and infrastructure could possibly be an important technique for future pandemics.
