Antimicrobial Resistance

Antimicrobial resistance, or AMR,  is a global health crisis that especially impacts the most vulnerable patient populations. AMR threatens advances made in all aspects of modern medicine including complex surgical procedures, transplantation, and cancer treatment. Annually in the United States, more than two million people become infected with antibiotic-resistant bacteria and more than 23,000 people die each year as a direct result of these infections (www.CDC.gov). UNC researchers are working to better understand AMR through basic science, translational research and clinical investigation.

In the News

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  Q&A: Investigators Discuss AMR Research at UNC’s Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases

  Antimicrobial Resistant (AMR) research at the UNC Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases brings together collaborators from schools and departments across UNC. Following is an interview with David van Duin, MD, PhD, Brian Conlon, PhD, Luther Bartelt, MD, Tessa Andermann, MD, MPH, and Jonathan Juliano, MD, MSPH, DTM&H. Why is antimicrobial resistance an important issue? … Read more

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  Study Finds Increased Risk for Hospital-Acquired Bloodstream Infections Among Racial and Ethnic Minorities

  A nationwide analysis of a large, geographically diverse cohort of adults in the U.S. suggests there is an increased risk for hospital-acquired carbapenem-resistant enterobacterales (CRE) bloodstream infections among racial and ethnic minorities. Felicia Ruffin, PhD, is a researcher at Duke University School of Medicine in the research group of Vance Fowler, MD, MHS. For this … Read more

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  An Opportunist Infection Following a Lung Transplant: Research Participant Shares His Story

  Matthew Burns, age 33, was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis as a child, and for years experienced repeated lung infections. When the need for intravenous therapy and oxygen became more frequent, he received a lung transplant, a lifesaving opportunity for hope and healing. But a transplant surgery that might typically require a one-month hospital stay, turned … Read more

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  Treatment-resistant infections, a “slow-moving catastrophe”

  From discovery to prevention to treatment, researchers at UNC-Chapel Hill are working to understand and mitigate the global rise of untreatable infections. Nearly every one of us has had an ailment that was treated with an antibiotic. Think about what would happen if that treatment didn’t work. More than 2.8 million antimicrobial-resistant — or treatment-resistant … Read more