News


Benefits of outpatient parenteral antibiotic therapy examined


Baxter Healthcare, the University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW) NHS Trust, and Environmental Resources Management (ERM) have jointly published the results of a report showing the significant environmental benefits of Outpatient Parenteral Antibiotic Therapy (OPAT), when compared with the inpatient model of intravenous (IV) antimicrobial therapy. OPAT is a clinically effective and cost-effective method of delivering antimicrobial therapy outside the hospital for appropriate patients who are otherwise medically fit. The peer-reviewed report, published in the JAC-Antimicrobial Resistance, shows antimicrobial therapy self-administered intravenously in the patient’s home greatly reduces CO2


emissions by 85%, compared to in-hospital administration of IV antibiotics.


According to the study, this reduction in CO2 is the same amount (5461 kg CO2


eq per patient


population) that is generated from driving a petrol-fuelled passenger car from London to Rome and back six times. The study assessed the environmental impact of three OPAT care pathways (self-administered OPAT in the home, nurse-assisted OPAT in the home, and nurse- assisted OPAT in an outpatient department) and inpatient administration of IV antibiotics with adult patients (>18 years of age) in the NHS in England for which OPAT was a viable treatment option. The unit of analysis was 10 adult patients, based on


the available capacity for patients on the regional NHS (publicly funded) OPAT service offered at any one time by a leading service provider. The results of the study also show a substantial reduction in both water usage (78%) and waste generated (91%) during self-administered OPAT treatment in the home. Nurse administered OPAT, either in the home or outpatient department, also results in lower use of water, generation of waste and CO2


emissions


compared to the inpatient pathway. The analysis identifies the most substantial contributions to the environmental impact of the antimicrobial therapy care pathway are the resources associated with delivering in-patient care. “As the first study of its kind, we hope these


results will allow more OPAT services to grow or be developed, play a part in antimicrobial stewardship and thus create a reduction in antimicrobial resistance, and improve the lives of more patients due to quicker discharges back to their own surroundings,” said Dr. Steven Montgomery-Laird, consultant physician in medical microbiology at UHCW and an author of the report. To treat as many patients as possible and minimise nursing resources required to deliver OPAT, where possible, patients are given training and support to be able to manage their therapy in their home or alternatively a caregiver or family member are trained to support. Visit: https:// pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40070892/


Key chemical in dark chocolate may slow down ageing


Research from King’s College London has found that the chemical theobromine, a common plant compound that comes from cocoa, could have anti-ageing properties The study compared levels of theobromine in people’s blood, with blood-based markers of biological ageing. Biological age markers indicate how old your body seems based on its health and function, as opposed to the years you have lived. These markers are based on patterns of small ‘bookmarks’ on our DNA, called methylation, that change over the course of our lives. Across two European cohorts, which included 509 individuals from TwinsUK and 1,160 from KORA, the research found that those who had higher theobromine circulating in their blood had a biological age that was lower than their actual age. Visit: https://www.aging-us.com/ article/206344


Research suggests shingles vaccine could slow progress of dementia and even reduce the risk of mortality


A public health policy in Wales may have produced the strongest evidence yet that the shingles vaccine can reduce the risk of dementia. Researchers analysing the health records of Welsh older adults discovered that those who received the shingles vaccine were 20% less likely to develop dementia over the next seven years than those who did not receive the vaccine. The findings, published in Nature, support an


emerging theory that viruses that affect the nervous system can increase the risk of dementia. If further confirmed, the new findings suggest that a preventive intervention for dementia is already close at hand. In a follow-up study published in Cell, the researchers found that the vaccine may also benefit those already diagnosed with dementia by slowing the progress of the disease. When the researchers analysed the health


records, they discovered that the vaccine’s benefits 12 www.clinicalservicesjournal.com I February 2026


diagnosis were significantly less likely to die from dementia in the next nine years (as indicated on their death certificates), suggesting that the vaccine could slow the progress of the disease. Overall, nearly half of the 7,049 Welsh seniors who had dementia at the start of the vaccination programme died from dementia during follow-up, but only about 30% of those who received the vaccine died from dementia. In a further finding, the study showed that


extended from the earliest signs of cognitive decline to the latest stages of dementia. They found that people who received the vaccine were less likely to be diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment during a nine-year follow-up than those who were unvaccinated. Even more dramatic, people who received the vaccine after a dementia


protection against dementia was much more pronounced in women than in men. This could be due to sex differences in immune response or in the way dementia develops, said Pascal Geldsetzer, the senior author of the new study. Women on average have higher antibody responses to vaccination, for example, and shingles is more common in women than in men. Visit: https://tinyurl.com/wzw6cj2y


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