Departmental update
Surveillance systems provide an understanding of the patterns of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and antimicrobial use (AMU). AMU refers to both aggregated national data and individual patient-level data. Previously, aggregated national antimicrobial use data was referred to as antimicrobial consumption (AMC).
As outlined in the 2015 Global Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance, comprehensive and high quality data on AMR and AMU allows for:
- understanding the extent of AMR and its drivers
- detecting trends and emerging threats
- defining targets for interventions
- measuring the impact of implemented interventions.
The WHO Global Antimicrobial Resistance and Use Surveillance System (GLASS) gathers official national data on AMR and AMU in human health. Since its inception in 2016, GLASS has expanded in scope and coverage and comprises several modules, including:
- routine surveillance on AMR in common bacterial and fungal pathogens;
- periodic nationally representative surveys to estimate prevalence, health and economic burden of AMR; and
- surveillance of AMU in community and hospital settings.
As of December 2023, 135 countries, territories and areas (CTAs) have committed to contribute data to GLASS on AMR (GLASS-AMR) and/or AMU (GLASS-AMU).
On 19 September 2024, WHO launched the updated GLASS dashboard, which provides a visual representation of AMR and AMU national data for 2022.
GLASS data visualization dashboard for antimicrobial resistance
The GLASS dashboard provides an overview of the global and regional AMR situation. It summarizes the proportion of resistance to 23 antibiotics across 11 antibacterial classes for 8 bacterial pathogens commonly isolated from patients with bloodstream, gastrointestinal, urinary or genital infectious syndromes.
The dashboard also describes the status, quality and standards of national AMR surveillance systems. It presents advances in coverage of data contribution between 2016 and 2022, including:
- number of countries reporting antibiotic susceptibility test results;
- numbers of bacteriologically confirmed infections reported with susceptibility information; and
- median bacteriologically confirmed infections with susceptibility information reported per population each year.
The dashboard presents the global and regional median proportion of resistance to antibiotics in 2022, considering differences in testing coverage that may influence estimates. Users can also filter the data to view previous years. Time series of antibiotic resistance are shown for countries that have reported susceptibility information from 2018 to 2022 without interruption. Where data are available from at least 5 countries, pooled estimates are summarized by the median and interquartile range of individual country observations.
The methods underlying the 2024 GLASS dashboard are described in detail in previous report editions and the manual for early implementation.
GLASS data visualization dashboard for antimicrobial use
The GLASS-AMU dashboard displays the data on annual national AMU globally (Global AMU data) and by CTA for the 2016 to 2022 period. The dashboard provides an overview of the CTAs enrolled in GLASS-AMU by the end of 2023 and the characteristics of the national antimicrobial use data reported for each year.
The dashboard also summarizes the national AMU by antimicrobial classes, antibiotic subclass (ATC3 and ATC4 levels), AWaRe classification and route of administration. In the CTA profile, it also displays the list of antibacterials that make up 75% of the national antibacterial use. A detailed description of GLASS-AMU methods underlying the GLASS dashboard is given in previous report editions, in 2021 and 2022, and the GLASS methodology for surveillance of national antimicrobial use.
As of December 2023, 89 CTAs had enrolled in GLASS-AMU, and 73 of them reported data for either 2022 (n=63) or any other for the period 2016–2022. Of these, validated data from 67 CTAs are displayed on the current dashboard, including data from 60 CTAs for 2022. In 2022, 58% of the CTAs (n=35) met or exceeded WHO’s target of at least 60% of the national use from Access antibiotics, and 32% (n=19) exceeded 70%.
The number of countries enrolling and reporting data on antimicrobial use to GLASS has been increasing over the years, and WHO strives to work with CTAs to expand further. Continuous efforts are made to improve the data quality and the user experience. WHO is developing a guide on how to use AMU surveillance data for policy and practice which should be available by the beginning of 2025.