Abstract

This document presents a Latin American consensus to standardize definitions of different levels of antimicrobial resistance in bacteria of public health importance. Inclusion and exclusion criteria are described for antibiotics to include (availability, relevance, and existence of cut-off values) and for methodologies to use. Three gram-negative microorganisms with a great impact in the hospital environment (Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Acinetobacter spp.) were selected as a pilot proposal. The lack of cut-off values for certain antibiotics (e.g., tigecycline, fosfomycin, and colistin), crucial in treating infections caused by multi-drug resistant or extensively drug-resistant pathogens, led to the need to discuss and agree on provisional cut-off values for monitoring resistance to these drugs. The work team also addressed and reached consensus on easier-to-use alternative susceptibility tests, other than methods approved by international guidelines, for routine testing in clinical bacteriology laboratories. The main benefit of this document is to provide Latin American laboratories with a standardized and consensual framework for the identification and constant and unified surveillance of resistant microorganisms. The recommendations included in this document are the result of consensus among representatives of the national reference laboratories in the countries belonging to the Latin American Surveillance Network of Antimicrobial Resistance, coordinated by the Pan American Health Organization.