Alternative Remedies
"We decided to investigate the chemical properties of the American beautyberry because it was an important medicinal plant for Native Americans"
This category is dedicated to the exploration and scientific investigation of alternative approaches to preventing and treating microbial infections, particularly in the context of AMR.
It covers a diverse range of potential therapies that fall outside the scope of conventional synthetic antibiotics. Topics include the study of natural products like medicinal plants and phytotherapy along with the therapeutic potential of microbiome therapies such as probiotics and prebiotics.
The focus is on evidence-based research into the efficacy, safety, and mechanisms of these alternative remedies as potential tools curb infections.
Alternative remedies and natural products like Manuka honey and garlic are well-known examples. Other treatment modalities such as FMT (Faecal Microbiota Transplantation) have gained ground in recent years and in several hospitals across Europe is now routine medical care particularly in recurrent C. diff infections (Clostridium difficile) and are covered in this category as well.
News
View allAs antibiotic resistance grows, researchers turn to copper to fight infections
Abstract
When bacteria invade the urinary tract, the body has its own arsenal for fighting back. Among those weapons is an unlikely tool: copper. Researchers at the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences (VMBS) are investigating how the body uses the essential trace mineral to fight urinary tract infections (UTIs), how bacteria manage to survive that attack and whether those discoveries could eventually lead to new ways of treating infections that are increasingly difficult to control with antibiotics.New CAP Guidance Highlights Antibiotic Stewardship, Lung Ultrasound, and Steroid Use
Abstract
1 In July 2025, the American Thoracic Society (ATS) released a focused update to the comprehensive 2019 joint ATS and Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) CAP guideline, updating guidance in four areas where new evidence has emerged since 2019: lung ultrasound as a diagnostic alternative to chest radiography, the management of CAP when respiratory viral testing is positive, shorter antibiotic duration in clinically stable patients, and the role of systemic corticosteroids in non-severe versus severe CAP.2 The IDSA declined to co-endorse the final guideline, the first major divergence between the two societies on CAP guidance in more than two decades. The IDSA-ATS severity criteria define severe CAP as the presence of one major criterion (need for mechanical ventilation or vasopressors) or three or more minor criteria, including tachypnea, hypoxemia, multilobar disease, encephalopathy, uremia, leukopenia, thrombocytopenia, hypothermia, and hypotension requiring aggressive fluid resuscitation.2 Corticosteroids are most appropriate when initiated within 24 hours of meeting severity criteria and when inflammatory markers are elevated, particularly C-reactive protein, which has been identified as a predictor of corticosteroid benefit in an individual patient data meta-analysis of eight randomized trials.7 Other factors favoring corticosteroid use include both intensive care unit admission and respiratory failure with a PaO2/FiO2 ratio below 300. The formal IDSA dissent, published in December 2025 by four IDSA committee members, gives credit to the shortened antibiotic duration recommendations as a meaningful contribution, but questions both the evidence and the process behind the viral-positive antibiotic recommendation.4 The evidentiary problem is straightforward: the committee identified no comparative studies for the antibiotic versus no-antibiotic question in viral CAP, yet issued a treat-by-default recommendation. Dr. Mohammad is associate division chief of hospital medicine at MedStar Southern Maryland Hospital Center in Clinton, Md., and assistant professor of medicine at Georgetown University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C. Dr. Quazi is the physician executive director of hospital medicine at MedStar Health North, and chair of the department of medicine at MedStar Good Samaritan Hospital and MedStar Union Memorial Hospital in Baltimore.Common supplements rival antibiotics for severe gum disease
Abstract
Omega-3 and low-dose aspirin matched the effectiveness of antibiotics in a year-long study of patients with severe gum disease, with both approaches helping about 58% reach the treatment goal. The unexpected result could point to a new way to treat some patients while reducing reliance on antibiotics and the growing problem of antibiotic resistance.
