AMR burden and surveillance
Robust and strong surveillance systems across the world, especially in low-and middle-income countries are essential to tackle AMR. At the national level, data can help inform health policies and responses to health emergencies. At the global level, this data can provide early warnings of emerging threats and help identify long–term trends.
The IOI is working in over 28 sites across 13 countries to support and strengthen surveillance systems and laboratories.
There is no way to solve a problem if you don’t have actionable data. It is crucial to understand how antibiotics are being used around the world to understand the full scale of our challenge. We need a global dataset to understand the what, why and how of resistance.
AMR burden and surveillance projects
Ongoing projects include investigating the burden of antibiotic resistance in neonates from developing societies (BARNARDS), comparing the burden of AMR and treatment failure in low-, middle- and high-income countries (BALANCE), and investigating the role of arthropods (flies and insects) on AMR spread (AVIAR).
BARNARDS
Neonatal sepsis is one of the leading causes of infant mortality, particularly in LMICs, and is commonly linked to drug resistance. However, the burden and mechanisms of AMR linked to neonatal sepsis remain poorly explored, particularly in rural areas where healthcare is severely restricted.
The BARNARDs study was one of the first studies to blend clinical and molecular epidemiology from LMICs to characterize neonatal Gram-negative infections and their AMR profiles, and link this to clinical outcomes and risk factors (including social deprivation, access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene conditions, and antibiotic use).
BALANCE
he ‘BALANCE’ study aims to estimate the health and economic burden of AMR in pediatric and adult populations, comparing low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and high-income countries (HICs). Focusing on Bangladesh, Kenya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sierra Leone, Israel, Italy, Poland and Singapore, the study integrates high-quality demographic, socioeconomic, epidemiological, clinical, microbiology and genomic data through a capacity-building approach.
AVIAR
While the misuse of antibiotics in human medicine and agriculture are key contributors to the global rise and spread of AMR, there are many additional factors that could relate to AMR dissemination, including the role played by arthropods (including spiders, flies and cockroaches) on the transmission of drug-resistant bacteria.
The AVIAR study explores how arthropods contribute to drug-resistant infections in patients.
