Journal Article

Surveillance of antimicrobial resistance in low- and middle-income countries: a scattered picture

Hardcastle, Timothy Craig, Hallit, Souheil, Salameh, Pascale, Mohammed, Irfan, Sartelli, Massimo, Naina Mohamed, Isa, Lugova, Halyna, Iskandar, Katia, Hanna, Pierre Abi, Islam, Salequl, Dhingra, Sameer, Molinier, Laurent, Haque, Mainul, Jamaluddin, Nurul Adilla Hayat, Hajj, Said El, Roques, Christine, Sharma, Paras

2021

Overview

Data on comprehensive population-based surveillance of antimicrobial resistance is lacking. In low- and middle-income countries, the challenges are high due to weak laboratory capacity, poor health systems governance, lack of health information systems, and limited resources. Developing countries struggle with political and social dilemma, and bear a high health and economic burden of communicable diseases. Available data are fragmented and lack representativeness which limits their use to advice health policy makers and orientate the efficient allocation of funding and financial resources on programs to mitigate resistance. Low-quality data means soaring rates of antimicrobial resistance and the inability to track and map the spread of resistance, detect early outbreaks, and set national health policy to tackle resistance. Here, we review the barriers and limitations of conducting effective antimicrobial resistance surveillance, and we highlight multiple incremental approaches that may offer opportunities to strengthen population-based surveillance if tailored to the context of each country.

• Publisher: BioMed Central,BioMed Central Ltd,Springer Nature B.V,BMC
• Subject: Acquired immune deficiency syndrome / AIDS / Anti-Bacterial Agents / Antimicrobial agents / Antimicrobial resistance / Biomedical and Life Sciences / Biomedicine / Communicable diseases / Communicable Diseases - epidemiology / Developing Countries / Disease control / Drug Resistance / Drug resistance in microorganisms / Drug Resistance, Bacterial / Funding / Health Policy / Health Policy and the Management of Antimicrobial Resistance in LMICs / Health surveillance / HIV / Human immunodeficiency virus / Humans / Humidity / Industrialized nations / Infectious Diseases / Infrastructure / Inventory control / Laboratories / LDCs / Life Sciences / Low income groups / Low- and Middle-Income countries / Malaria / Maternal mortality / Medical informatics / Medical Microbiology / Medical policy / Population Surveillance / Public health / Quality control / Reagents / Review / Supply chains / Surveillance / Trends / Tropical diseases / Tuberculosis