The overuse and misuse of antibiotics has allowed the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. In particular, the emergence of carbapenem resistance in bacteria is a major public health concern because these agents are regarded as one of the last effective therapies available for treating serious infections.
Two papers in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy illustrate very different approaches to the problem. In one ‘Evaluation of the AusDiagnostics MT CRE EU assay for the detection of carbapenemase genes and transferable colistin resistance determinants mcr-1/-2 in MDR Gram-negative bacteria’ (Meunier D et al.). a new kit for reference laboratories is validated.
In the second ‘Evaluation of multiplex tandem PCR (MT-PCR) assays for the detection of bacterial resistance genes among Enterobacteriaceae in clinical urines’. (Schmidt et al.) the approach is directed more toward the clinician. Instead of asking the question “what resistance genes are present”, this kit asks the question “which antibiotics can I use on this patient”
