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Monday, 05/18/2009
Hospital Clínic Leads the Recruitment of Patients in the European GRACE Study to Reduce Resistance to Antibiotics
GRACE is a large project that has been in operation since 2006 and involves the participation of more than 10 countries of the European Union, with a budget of €11,500,000
Following a considerable effort by all the patient care staff of the Eixample Primary Health Care Consortium (CAPSE), we reached first place in the European project, Genomics to combat Resistance against Antibiotics in community-acquired LRTI in Europe (GRACE), with a total of 246 patients recruited during the 2008/2009 season, after Poland in the overall ranking of the study, which has 445 patients.
GRACE (https://www.grace-lrti.org/portal/en-GB) is a large project that has been in operation since 2006 and involves the participation of more than 10 countries of the European Union, with a budget of €11,500,000. Born of the global concern about the rapid rise in resistances to antibiotics and, given that more than 80% of antibiotics taken are prescribed outside the hospital setting, the project studies the use of antibiotics to treat respiratory diseases in primary care settings, in order to prevent resistances.
There is still insufficient evidence to allow family doctors to distinguish between viral and bacterial diseases and between bronchitis and pneumonia; for this reason, prescribing antibiotics is often ineffective and generates resistance in the community.
The GRACE study will be carried on until 2011 via different work packages (WP) that study aspects ranging from antibiotic resistance to the economic impact generated. Observational studies and the clinical trial phase are currently under way via WP9 and WP10. In Barcelona, Dr. Antoni Torres is the principal investigator, supported by Dr. Núria Sánchez-Ruano and research nurse, Patricia Fernández-Vandellòs.