Read on Twitter
1/10 #WAAW is here and #AMR remains an urgent global problem. But I want to talk about something a bit different. Our keys lines of defence remain preventing infections through good #IPC and #vaccines, strong #AMS by all prescribers, #drugdiscovery to invigorate the pipeline...
2/10 ...public and professional education, and engagement with global veterinary, agricultural and environmental partners. We typically talk about the avoidance of antibiotic-resistant infections (and the resulting morbidity, mortality and costs) as the key outcome of #AMS...
3/10 ...but there’s something else that could be a potential unintended benefit of strong #AMS - substantially lowering the risk of childhood #asthma and #allergy. Increasing evidence shows that infants who receive antibiotics in the first few months of life...
4/10 …are at higher risk of developing asthma later in childhood. The hypothesis being that antibiotics upset the microbial ecology of the infant #gut at a time of crucial development where healthy gut bacteria help to train the immune system away from hyper-reactive responses…
5/10 …we’ve seen indication of this in BC https://bit.ly/3blZ2XO and other jurisdictions (beautifully summarised by @pweety_vivien https://bit.ly/32Smpqg ) but there is still a long way to go. Building a strong causal argument takes time and effort - as does ALL good science...
6/10 …there is no magic bullet design, we need to compile evidence from population based studies, prospective birth cohorts, microbiome investigations, mouse models etc. to build this argument and address all the possible confounders that could be at play....
7/10 ...we also need to expand the outcomes to other markers of allergic sensitisation and improve generalisability. But imagine the possibilities! If the argument was causal, investment in strong antimicrobial stewardship in the community could help to not only prevent #AMR...
8/10 ...it could potentially help to reverse the #asthma and #allergy epidemic currently affecting children all across the world. In 
, that’s what we call a “two-fer”, two for the price of one. It could bring in a whole new host of stakeholders...
, that’s what we call a “two-fer”, two for the price of one. It could bring in a whole new host of stakeholders...
9/10 ...and change the nature of the conversation around stewardship, adding individual risk to the argument for the collective good. So I invite my #AMS colleagues during #WAAW to add atopic disease to their thinking around the potential benefits of strong stewardship...
10/10 ...If you’d like to learn more about our ongoing work (or better yet, work with us!) please feel free to reach out. I’d also like to highlight my powerhouse colleagues here in BC @antibioticwise @DavidPatrickMD @TurveyLab @CHILDSTUDY @sbihi_hind 
