A Critical Situation welcoming Novel Solutions

Hospitals are a critical component of the antimicrobial resistance problem worldwide.

The combination of highly susceptible patients, intensive and prolonged antimicrobial use, and cross-infection, have resulted in nosocomial infections by highly resistant bacterial pathogens which are expensive to control and extremely difficult to eradicate. In a number of instances, bacteria resistant to quasi all available agents were isolated and it is feared that the number of such cases will sharply increase in the coming years.

The level of resistance in many bacterial species varies across geographic regions, but has definitely increased over the last decade.

• In the EU there were about 3 million healthcare associated infections in 2006, leading to 50,000 deaths.
• In the US, there were about 1.7 million healthcare associated infections in 2002 leading to 99,000 deaths.

Unfortunately, many pathogenic bacteria are now showing the capacity to develop multiple mechanisms of resistance, whichstresses the urgent need for means to control the emergence of resistance, which is the primary mission of Da Volterra.  Hospitals are also the place where many patients with severe infections due to community-acquired resistant pathogens are treated. In the wake of the AIDS epidemic, the prevalence of such infections can only be expected to increase.

One of Da Volterra’s innovative approaches focuses on minimizing the risk of nosocomial dissemination, by tackling the problem at the root, and selectively decontaminate patients who hold multiresistant bacteria strains in their commensal flora.