Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is an emerging global public health crisis, and surveillance is a fundamental component in the monitoring and evaluation of AMR mitigation endeavors. The primary aim of the scoping review by Do, et al. (2023) was to identify successes, barriers, and gaps in implementing AMR surveillance systems and utilizing data from them.

The systematic search yielded 639 journal articles for screening. Following deduplication and screening, 46 articles were determined to be appropriate for inclusion. Generally, most studies focused on human AMR surveillance (n = 38, 82.6%). Regionally, there was equal focus on low- and middle-income countries (n = 7, 15.2%) and trans-national contexts (n = 7, 14.5%). All included articles (n = 46, 100.0%) discussed barriers to either implementing or utilizing AMR surveillance systems. From the scoping review, 6 themes emerged: capacity for surveillance, data infrastructure, policy, representativeness, stakeholder engagement, and sustainability. Data infrastructure was most frequently discussed as problematic in evaluation of surveillance systems (n = 36, 75.0%). The most frequent success to surveillance system implementation was stakeholder engagement (n = 30, 65.2%).

Experiences of AMR surveillance systems are diverse across contexts, the authors conclude, adding that there is a distinct separation of experiences between systems with emerging surveillance systems and those with established systems. They add that surveillance systems require extensive refinement to become representative and meet surveillance objectives.

Reference: Do PC, et al. Strengthening antimicrobial resistance surveillance systems: a scoping review. BMC Infectious Diseases. Vol. 23, article number 593 (2023).