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Some of the world’s most common and potentially most dangerous infections are proving drug-resistant – WHO

The World Health Organization (WHO) has released its first surveillance on antibiotic resistance, disclosing the high level of antibiotic resistance to some serious bacterial infections across the world.

According to WHO’s Global Antimicrobial Surveillance System (GLASS), there is widespread resistance to antibiotic among 500,000 people with suspected bacterial infections across 22 Countries.

Although the system does not include data on resistance of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which causes tuberculosis (TB), since WHO has being tracking it since 1994, with annual updates in the Global Tuberculosis Report, the most commonly reported resistant bacteria were Escherichia coliKlebsiella pneumoniaeStaphylococcus aureus, and Streptococcus pneumoniae, followed by Salmonella spp.

The report also read that; “among patients with suspected bloodstream infection, the proportion that had bacteria resistant to at least one of the most commonly used antibiotics ranged tremendously between different countries – from zero to 82%. Resistance to penicillin – the medicine used for decades worldwide to treat pneumonia – ranged from zero to 51% among reporting countries. And between 8% to 65% of E. coli associated with urinary tract infections presented resistance to ciprofloxacin, an antibiotic commonly used to treat this condition”.

The director of WHO Antimicrobial Resistance Secretariat, Dr. Marc Sprenger, said

“the report confirms the serious situation of antibiotic resistance worldwide. Some of the world’s most common – and potentially most dangerous – infections are proving drug-resistant,” and most worrying of all, pathogens don’t respect National borders. That’s why WHO is encouraging all countries to set up good surveillance systems for detecting drug resistance that can provide data to this global system”.

GLASS adoption so far

About 52 countries (25 high-income, 20 middle-income and 7 low-income countries) are enrolled in GLASS. For the first report, 40 countries provided information about their national surveillance systems and 22 countries also provided data on levels of antibiotic resistance.

“The report is a vital first step towards improving our understanding of the extent of antimicrobial resistance. Surveillance is in its infancy, but it is vital to develop it if we are to anticipate and tackle one of the biggest threats to global public health,” says Dr Carmem Pessoa-Silva, GLASS Coordinator.

Challenges being faced

Some countries face major challenges in building their National surveillance systems, including a lack of personnel, funds and infrastructure.

Nonetheless, WHO is supporting more Countries to set up National antimicrobial resistance surveillance systems that can produce reliable, meaningful data. GLASS is also assisting to standardize the way Countries collect data and enable a more complete picture about antimicrobial resistance patterns and trends.

GLASS is expected to perform a similar function for common bacterial pathogens as the solid drug resistance surveillance programmes in TB, HIV and malaria, which has been functional for ages helped estimate disease burden, plan diagnostic and treatment services, monitor the effectiveness of control interventions, and design effective treatment regimens to address and prevent future resistance.

Progress report

In Kenya, it has enhanced the development of the Nation’s antimicrobial resistance system.

Tunisia started to aggregate data on antimicrobial resistance at National level

The Republic of Korea completely revised its National surveillance system to align with the GLASS methodology, providing data of very high quality and completeness.

Also Countries like Afghanistan or Cambodia that face major structural challenges, have enrolled in the system and are using the GLASS framework as an opportunity for strengthening its antimicrobial resistance surveillance capacities.

About GLASS

Launched in October 2015, the Global Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance System (GLASS) was developed to support the global action plan on antimicrobial resistance.

Its aim is to support global surveillance and research in order to strengthen the evidence base on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and help in making informed decisions and drive National, regional, as well as global actions.

Early implementation of GLASS covers the period 2015–2019. During this period, GLASS will provide surveillance and laboratory guidance, tools and support to countries in developing effective AMR surveillance systems.

Further development of GLASS will be based on the lessons learnt during this period. The GLASS manual for early implementation details the proposed approach, and outlines the flexible and incremental development of the system over time.

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