Background: Antibiotics are widely prescribed especially for URTIs. Their irrational use can increase costs and resistance. Aim: Assess knowledge, attitude and prescribing of antibiotics for URTIs in, Selangor, Malaysia using a cross-sectional survey among GPs working in private clinics in 2011. Results: 139 physicians completed the questionnaire (response rate = 34.8%). 49.6% (n=69) agreed antibiotics are helpful in treating URTIs, with most GPs agreeing antibiotics may reduce URTI duration and complications. The majority of GPs reported they felt patients expected antibiotics, with 36.7% (n=51) agreeing patients would change doctors if they did not prescribe antibiotics and 21.6% (n=30) agreeing when requested they prescribe antibiotics even if they believe them unnecessary. When assessed against six criteria, most GPs had a moderate level of knowledge of prescribing for URTIs. However, antibiotic prescriptions could be appreciably reduced. Conclusion: Further programmes are needed to educate GPs and patients about antibiotics building on current initiatives.

To say that tuberculosis (TB) has regained a strong foothold in the global human health and wellbeing scenario would be an understatement. Ranking alongside HIV/AIDS as the top reason for mortality due to a single infectious disease, the impact of TB extends far into socio-economic context worldwide. As global efforts led by experts and political bodies converge to mitigate the predicted outcome of growing antimicrobial resistance, the academic community of students, practitioners and researchers have mobilised to develop integrated, inter-disciplinary programmes to bring the plans of the former to fruition. Enabling this crucial requirement for unimpeded dissemination of scientific discovery was the TB Summit 2016, held in London, United Kingdom. This report critically discusses the recent breakthroughs made in diagnostics and treatment while bringing to light the major hurdles in the control of the disease as discussed in the course of the 3-day international event. Conferences and symposia such as these are the breeding grounds for successful local and global collaborations and therefore must be supported to expand the understanding and outreach of basic science research.

Development of new drugs is a time-consuming, hugely expensive and an uncertain endeavor. The pharmaceutical industry is looking for cost-effective alternatives with reduced risks of drug failure. Validated target machinery along with established inhibitors indicates usefulness in drug design, discovery and further development. Folate metabolism, found in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes, represents an essential druggable target for chemotherapy. Numerous enzymes in the cell replication cycle use folate either as a cofactor or as a substrate. DHFR, an enzyme of the folate biosynthesis pathway is an established chemotherapeutic target, initially explored for anti-cancer drug discovery. Diaminopteridines e.g. methotrexate and aminopterin, primarily used as anti-cancer agents, are folic acid analogues, first reported in late 1940's, used to produce temporary remission of acute leukaemia in children. However, due to the toxicity of these drugs, they could not be used for other therapeutic implications such as in the treatment of infectious diseases. Development of newer diaminopteridine derivatives has helped in repositioning their therapeutic usefulness. These analogues have now been proven as anti-parasitic, immuno-suppressants, anti-bacterial agents, to enlist a few therapeutic applications. Likewise, diaminopyrimidine, diaminoquinazoline and diaminodihydrotriazines are being explored for structural modifications by which they can be repurposed from their originally developed medicinal applicability and exploited for various other infectious disease conditions. In this review, we encompass the study of DHFR inhibitors potentially to be repurposed for different infectious disease case scenario and also highlight the novel anti-infective drug discovery benefits therein.

Tuberculosis (TB) poses a grave predicament to the world as it is not merely a scientific challenge but a socio-economic burden as well. A prime cause of mortality in human due to an infectious disease; the malady and its cause, Mycobacterium tuberculosis have remained an enigma with many questions that remain unanswered. The ability of the pathogen to survive and switch between varied physiological states necessitates a protracted therapeutic regimen that exerts an excessive strain on low-resource countries. To complicate things further, there has been a significant rise of antimicrobial resistance. Existing control measures, including treatment regimens have remained fairly uniform globally for at least half a century and require reinvention. Overcoming the societal and scientific challenges requires an increase in dialog to identify key regions that need attention and effective partners with whom successful collaborations can be fostered. In this report, we explore the discussions held at the International TB Summit 2015 hosted by EuroSciCon, which served as an excellent platform for researchers to share their recent findings. Ground-breaking results require outreach to affect policy design, governance and control of the disease. Hence, we feel it is important that meetings such as these reach a wider, global audience.