Despite extensive progress in scientific knowledge and medical technology, infectious diseases remain a leading cause of worldwide mortality. Whether in the general healthy population or in patients who are immunocompromised and vulnerable to invasive opportunistic infections, the evolution of drug-resistant organisms has hampered the therapeutic efficacy of available anti-infective agents. It has, moreover, substantially added to the cost of healthcare.
The Antimicrobial Resistance Prevention Initiative was launched in September of 2005 to explore the specific epidemiology and molecular mechanisms of resistance. The first year of this educational endeavor by the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) in collaboration with the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) has focused on antibiotic resistance mechanisms and outlined comprehensive patient and antibiotic management strategies.
This educational initiative continues with the 2006 Update, which concentrates on antiviral and antifungal resistance. The ever-increasing pool of patients who are immunocompromised and at high risk of invasive fungal infections coupled with the changing epidemiology of invasive mycoses on the one hand, and the health concerns raised by the rapid emergence of amatadine-resistant influenza A as well as the current outbreak of the H5N1 avian influenza virus on the other, make these topics timely and informative.
