The current status of surveillance of resistance to antimicrobial agents: report on a meeting

Activities of Fluconazole and Voriconazole against 1,586 Recent Clinical Isolates of Candida Species Determined by Broth Microdilution, Disk Diffusion, and Etest Methods: Report from The ARTEMIS Global Antifungal Susceptibility Program, 2001

“…The most common is detection and tracking of resistance trends and emerging new resistance threats (10,15,16,18). Clearly, this is very important and serves as the basis for both empirical treatment recommendations and as a means to assess interventional efforts (8,10,14,16). In addition to these potentially far-reaching objectives, surveillance programs also serve as a means to monitor the prevalent pathogens causing serious infections (e.g., bloodstream infections [BSIs]).…”

“…In addition to these potentially far-reaching objectives, surveillance programs also serve as a means to monitor the prevalent pathogens causing serious infections (e.g., bloodstream infections [BSIs]). The isolates collected in those programs that use a central laboratory can be used to assess the activities of new antimicrobial agents and to conduct postmarketing surveillance of the activities of established agents and aid in the development and validation of new susceptibility testing methods (8)(9)(10)16). In order to address effectively any of these secondary objectives, the availability of a geographically diverse collection of isolates from clinically important sites of infection (e.g., blood and normally sterile body fluids [NSBFs]) is essential (16,18,31).…”

Role of Sentinel Surveillance of Candidemia: Trends in Species Distribution and Antifungal Susceptibility

“…Since that time, numerous federal and nonfederal surveillance programs have been established (12, 16-20, 27, 29, 32, 50, 54). Although the strengths and weaknesses of these programs may be debated (16-19, 29, 32, 50, 54), it is clear that there is now a better appreciation of the antimicrobial resistance problem and that the infrastructure now exists for longitudinal tracking of resistance issues for antibacterial agents and bacterial pathogens (16)(17)(18)(19)(20).…”

Reality of Developing a Community-Wide Antibiogram

“…Solid data may be used to develop strategies for intervention by a multidisciplinary task force (5). Although regional, national, and global data may provide a sense of the magnitude of resistance to a given drug, local and/or (preferably) institutional data are generally of greater value to clinicians when managing their patients (8,12).…”