5.3 Setting up national surveillance systems – the WHO’s GLASS

Obtaining reliable, accurate national data requires standardised approaches to sample collection, transport, storage, analysis and reporting at local sites. Similarly, national data must be reliable and comparable if they are to be integrated into regional or global surveillance reports, and examples such as EARS-NET and ReLAVRA are testament to this commitment.

To support international AMR surveillance, the WHO has developed the Global Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance System (GLASS). GLASS promotes and supports a standardised approach to data collection, analysis and sharing at the global level, as well as providing a portal for submission of data and an annual report on results. As part of the standardised approach, GLASS provides guidance on the key components and functions of a national surveillance system so that data reported to GLASS are readily comparable between countries.

According to GLASS, a national surveillance system should comprise three core components (WHO, 2020) (Figure 8):

• a national coordinating centre
• a national reference laboratory
• selected AMR surveillance sites.

Figure 8 The core components of a national AMR surveillance system (WHO, 2020).

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A graphic showing the core components of a national AMR surveillance system: surveillance sites, a national coordinating centre and a national reference laboratory.

Figure 8 The core components of a national AMR surveillance system (WHO, 2020).

In addition to the core components, GLASS prompts national coordinating sites to standardise their reporting of antibiotic susceptibility testing (AST) data in line with internationally recognised standards – either the European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (EUCAST) or the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI).