One Health AMR Surveillance through Innovative Sampling

Bacteria are increasingly resistant to antibiotics. This makes it difficult to treat even simple infections. Current surveillance heavily relies on samples available in laboratories which provides biased information for assessing the prevalence of AMR in populations in which antibiotics are most often prescribed. There is an increasing call for methodologies that can provide population-based AMR prevalence estimates.

Aim

OASIS developed a strategy for a locally relevant AMR surveillance in human and animal populations.

Werkwijze

The method changed the question from “how often does AMR occur” to “does AMR occur that frequent that the antibiotic can no longer be used”. This reduces the number of bacteria needed, making these surveys feasible for local populations.

Resultaten

In Togo and Burkina Faso, 16 health facilities showed that most antibiotics used for patients with bladder infections were inadequate because the level of resistance was too high. Surveillance in the chicken and pigs showed that the method could not be used when the resistance is low. The method is more suitable to track changes of resistance over time, or the effects of interventions to reduce resistance, but not as an early warning system for new forms of resistance. Stakeholders in human and veterinary medicine are positive about the potential of the new method, because of the small numbers of bacteria it requires.