Other infectious diseases of global public health significance

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Antibiotic resistance, viral hepatitis and infections which can cause a global epidemic such as influenza, place major burdens on human health. Our research focusses on the following:1) Antibiotic resistance. One of objectives is to see if we can treat common infections such as pneumonia with shorter courses of antibiotics. Another is to see if using two antibiotics for a short time might improve outcomes when people have blood infections. Last, whether we can find new uses for older antibiotics that are no longer widely used but might be very effective for resistant bugs that have become more common in hospitals;2) Hepatitis C. There are now several very well tolerated oral drugs which cure >90% of patients with Hepatitis C with just 12-24 weeks of treatment. However, they are very expensive and not widely available. We are planning a study to see if people can be cured with even shorter treatment courses of between 4-6 weeks. 3) Infections that ‘go global’. The 2009 ‘swine flu’ outbreak, only 6 years after SARS, reminded us of how important it is to prepare for global epidemics. We are part of two international influenza studies trying to understand how influenza changes over time and what factors predict who will do badly if they get flu. We are now trialling a new treatment (FLU-IVIG) for those severely ill, hospitalised with influenza.