Aquarius Population Health

Research by Dr Elisabeth Adams, Managing Director of Aquarius Population Health, contributed to the O’Neill Review on antimicrobial resistance published today.

The Review, titled “Tackling Drug-Resistant Infections Globally: final report and recommendations” discusses areas crucial in the global strategy against antimicrobial resistance. The review mentions rapid tests as one of the most important diagnostic tools in selecting appropriate and effective antibiotic therapy for patients.

Dr Adams supported work led by Dr Katy Turner at the University of Bristol. The team estimated the impact of detecting resistant strains of the sexually transmitted infection gonorrhoea using a rapid diagnostic test. Knowing whether a gonorrhoea infection was sensitive or resistant to a range of drugs means clinicians could prescribe the most appropriate antibiotic and successfully treating patients sooner with the right drugs. This finding also meant that the more powerful antibiotics would be reserved, preventing the development of resistance. Our working paper is published here along with the model.

Rapid tests for resistance and sensitivity can ensure that patients are given targeted treatment when they attend for testing. This new analysis builds upon previous modelling work Aquarius published that demonstrated the impact of a rapid test for chlamydia and gonorrhoea (Turner et al, STI, 2013 and Adams et al, BMJ Open, 2014).

Aquarius Population Health is currently involved in projects exploring the impact of rapid tests for globally relevant infectious and non-infectious diseases.