Proper and early treatment is crucial to preventing worse patient outcomes and limiting community transmission when infectious diseases such as influenza, measles, hepatitis A, B, and C, and the novel coronavirus are involved. However, infectious-disease treatment can become less effective due to antimicrobial resistance (AMR), a phenomenon that occurs when fungi, viruses, parasites and bacteria stop responding to medications over time.
This can make infectious diseases incredibly harder to treat with conventional treatment protocols because antimicrobial and antibiotic medicines become less effective, increasing the risk of severe illness and death. In the case of infectious diseases, antimicrobial resistance can make it harder to limit disease spread and could even lead to pandemic-level events like the coronavirus pandemic.
Following the 5 D’s of antimicrobial stewardship — diagnosis, drug, dose, de-escalation and duration — while designing infectious disease protocols can reduce the risk of antimicrobial resistance and make infectious disease treatment more effective.
Proper diagnosis will be key to determining the most effective treatment and avoiding the misuse and overuse of antimicrobial treatments. Diagnosis should also be accompanied by proper guidance to ensure antibacterial and antimicrobials are prescribed only when it is necessary to limit the risk of developing antimicrobial resistance.
Determining the most appropriate drug is equally crucial to preventing antimicrobial resistance. A wrongly prescribed medication can lead to patient injury and further development of their infectious disease, increasing the risk of disease spread in the community.
Refer to guidelines and references to ensure each infectious disease patient receives the most appropriate treatment for them.
Dosage can determine whether the treatment is effective and may even affect the development of antimicrobial resistance. Guidelines and evidence will help you figure out the most appropriate doses for different infectious diseases.
Consider analyzing risk factors specific to given patients to personalize doses as much as possible to limit the risk of drug resistance.
De-escalation and discontinuation involve eliminating treatment elements that are no longer necessary or changing to treatment elements with a narrower range of activity. For infectious disease treatment, de-escalation ensures that the use of specific agents is discontinued once they have served their purpose to reduce the risk of antimicrobial resistance.
Shortening treatment duration makes it easier to avoid subjecting patients to unnecessary antimicrobial therapy and could even lower the risk of adverse drug events occurring.
Furthermore, reduced treatment durations can limit superinfection and antimicrobial resistance development, ensuring infectious bacteria, viruses and fungi are responsive to treatments.
Many companies, including Scinai Immunotherapeutics (NASDAQ: SCNI), are also working to commercialize immunotherapies targeting infectious diseases. This approach to treatment could also reign in the growing antimicrobial resistance that has made many diseases harder to treat.
NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to Scinai Immunotherapeutics Ltd. (NASDAQ: SCNI) are available in the company’s newsroom at https://ibn.fm/SCNI
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