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Pseudomonas Funding. Jess Burns, Mikayla Hernandez-Carey, and Brandon Mink. Purpose for Funding. In recent years, drug-resistance within bacteria strains has been increasing drastically. Antibiotics are in turn becoming weaker and less effective for treatment.
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Pseudomonas Funding Jess Burns, Mikayla Hernandez-Carey, and Brandon Mink
Purpose for Funding In recent years, drug-resistance within bacteria strains has been increasing drastically. Antibiotics are in turn becoming weaker and less effective for treatment. In ten years, the funding used would be put towards trials of new medicine to treat Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
Pseudomonas Aeruginosa Infections involving Pseudomonas involve the introduction of bacteria strains in the body. Those admitted to the hospital or with devices such as catheters or breathing machines are especially at risk. An estimated 51,000 cases regarding pseudomonas aeruginosa annually occur in the United States. 3% of these cases involve multi-drug resistant strains.
Pseudomonas in the Lungs Our group would focus mainly on the collection of pseudomonas in the lungs, which causesheavy damage and infections within the lungs. Patients with Cystic Fibrosis are heavily affected by pseudomonas in the lungs and are harder to treat because of how drug resistant the bacteria can become. These patients would become our focus group.
Volunteers for Research Our focus group is a group of patients who suffer from Cystic Fibrosis, along with lung infections involving the presence of pseudomonas. The importance of this specific group is to further treat lung infections within the group, eventually enabling the patients to recover faster from the infections if not eliminate the problem.
Research Basis During this time of research, we will be administering different medications to these patients, ultimately testing human trials. One group will be given a placebo while the other group will be given the actual drug, providing a control group as well as a test group. The groups will be on the medication for three weeks before re-evaluation.
Funding Possibilities With funds provided, our group would like to provide research trials over a course of ten years to be able to study and monitor the affect of upcoming and advanced medications to treat Pseudomonas.
Concerns/Issues to Address • Changing gloves with each visit with patients • Washing hands with warm, soapy water before and after entering rooms • Using disposable and sterilized nebulizer cups for patients who require inhaled medicine • Frequently and efficiently sanitizing medical equipment that cannot be disposed of
Monitoring Progress Monitoring our progress would require a multi-step process involving several lung function tests of volunteers who take medication we have funded.
Monitoring Progress- PFTs PFTs, an acronym for Pulmonary Function Tests, will be taken prior and after treatment with the drug. PFTs measure the amount of air that is able to enter and leave the lungs, determining how critical the patient’s condition is.
Details of PFTs Right before the three week trial begins, patients will take a PFT to determine their baseline lung function. After our trial of medicine, they will perform the same test. Our team will compare the before and after tests to determine if the medication has helped in keeping pseudomonas infections at a low.
Sources • http://www.cdc.gov/hai/organisms/pseudomonas.html • http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12297059