Question 29

What are the most important areas of future research in ABECOPD?

It is extremely important that infectious disease physicians are able to keep up-to-date with changing patterns of resistance. There is a lack of data for common infections with cultures of ABECOPD being very uncommon. This reflects the difficulty in obtaining culture material, or refusal of third-party payers to cover this service. Therefore, most surveillance data are from research groups such as the APAB. Their new Asian data is intriguing, and I think there is a need for a range of countries to do larger scale surveys of patients with AECOPD among both hospitalized patients and outpatients. If these results support the finding of more K. pneumoniae, P. aeruginosa and A. baumannii, this will need to be taken into account when preparing national guidelines, with agents such as levofloxacin gaining greater prominence due to its exceptional coverage, efficacy and safety.