7 Inadequate diagnostics and global surveillance

Antibiotic resistance is a global problem which requires a global collaborative approach to combat it. Well-equipped laboratories working in tandem with good surveillance systems can identify resistant isolates and reveal trends and outbreaks of infection. The information can then be used to inform treatment guidelines and clinical decision making, and so rationalise the use of antibiotics.

Unfortunately, the laboratory capacity and surveillance systems of many countries, particularly low-income countries (LICs), are inadequate or non-existent (Figures 10 and 11).

Figure 10 Number of countries in different WHO regions with an established national reference laboratory for AMR (WHO, 2017b): AFR, WHO African region; AMR, WHO region for the Americas; EMR, WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region; EUR, WHO European Region; SEAR, WHO South-East Asia Region; WPR, WHO Western Pacific Region.

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Figure 11 Number of hospital surveillance sites in each country of given WHO regions providing data to the WHO global AMR surveillance system (GLASS) (WHO, 2017b): AFR, WHO African region; AMR, WHO region for the Americas; EMR, WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region; EUR, WHO European Region; SEAR, WHO South-East Asia Region; WPR, WHO Western Pacific Region.

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Many of the themes discussed this week are brought together in the final section.

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