Abstract

Status of Antimicrobial Surveillance in the APEC Region Objective: Among the activities of the APEC Project CTI 25 2014A (SCSC) – “Coordinated Research Initiative for the Implementation of Antimicrobial Resistance Control Strategies” a Workshop focusing on antimicrobial resistance awareness was held in Santiago, Chile, on October 2015. In order to prepare the Workshop and to gather information of the current status of surveillance in the APEC region a survey was sent out to all APEC economies. The survey was completed in a multidisciplinary way considering the health and the veterinary services point of view. Materials and methods: The Survey was made up of 46 questions, divided into 4 topics: 1. General information about the use of antimicrobials and the actions that are taken to control it. 2. Integration of human health, animal health and food production. 3. Legal and regulatory aspects concerning antimicrobials and resistance surveillance systems. 4. Existence, permanence and funding of surveillance systems in humans and animals. Results and discussion: A total of 17 (81%) responses were recieved including Australia, Canada, Chile, People’s Republic of China, USA, Philipines, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zeland, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Chinese Taipéi, Thailand and Vietnam. Since the economies are differ from each other they were divided into two groups as indicated by the International Monetary Fund (fecha). The first group called "Advanced Economies" includes Australia, Canada, the United States, Hong Kong, Japan and New Zealand and in the second group named "Emerging markets and developing economies" includes Chile, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico , Papua New Guinea, Peru, Taipei, Thailand and Vietnam. Conclusions: From the survey results we can conclude that there is a better understanding of the implications of the emergence of the antimicrobial resistance in the area of human medicine than in the field of veterinary, agriculture and food production. Accordingly, most economies take actions to carry out a surveillance system of antimicrobial resistance only in the human health area, and only in the catalogued as “Advanced Economies” these actions are also extend to the animal health area.