IBBL Joins Combat Against Antimicrobial Resistance

Luxembourg: European Project IBBL Joins Combat Against Antimicrobial Resistance

04.04.2019 | Editor: Alexander Stark

The Integrated Bio Bank of Luxembourg (IBBL) joins the consortium of Value-Dx, an Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) project aiming to combat antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and improve patient outcomes.

Respiratory tract infections acquired in community care settings are the most frequent cause of medical consultation and inappropriate antibiotic use.
(Source: Pixabay / CC0 )

Dudelange/Luxembourg — Diagnostics are deemed instrumental in guiding healthcare professionals in treating infectious diseases. However, in community care settings antibiotics are often overused and unnecessarily prescribed, accelerating AMR. Value-Dx is a European-wide approach aiming to generate evidence on the medical, economic, and public health value of diagnostics in tackling AMR.

The project will focus on acute respiratory tract infections acquired in community care settings as they are the most frequent cause of medical consultation and inappropriate antibiotic use. The outcomes of Value-Dx could apply to other common infections such as urinary tract infections, blood stream infections, and hospital-acquired respiratory tract infections. The purpose of the porject is to transform medical practice to achieve more personalised, evidence-based antibiotic prescription and use in community care settings through the widespread use of clinical and cost-effective innovative diagnostic strategies.

A new approach developed by scientists at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universitiy Nuremberg-Erlangen could be used as a starting point for the development of new antibiotics.

The project consortium, coordinated by the University of Antwerp, includes 26 partners from academia, industry and other organisations. Specifically, IBBL will support the creation and maintenance of a biobank of clinical samples, pathogens and DNA isolated from Community-Acquired Acute Respiratory Tract Infections (CA-Arti) patients, as well as the establishment of a database and repository of all data collected within Value-Dx. Moreover, IBBL will lead the development of a business plan for the creation and maintenance of a biobank of clinical specimens, strains and DNA.

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