Initiatives to fight antimicrobial resistance


This page alphabetically lists some European or international initiatives active in the field of combatting antimicrobial resistance and links to their individual (external) websites. If you would like to add a new European or international initiative or amend an existing entry, please contact the .

Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics

In 2011 we were delighted to join forces with Sustain and Compassion in World Farming to form the Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics. Joining with two such respected NGO partners will allow us to all amplify our messages, and hopefully be more effective at reducing the overuse of antibiotics on farms to reduce the potential impact on human health. New antibiotics are now rarely developed and the Alliance aims to 'Save our Antibiotics', by preventing their overuse within EU farming.

The Alliance released a new report this week warning about how Brexit may influence the standards of British farm antibiotic use. Take a look at it here and learn about the possible consequences.

Antibiotic Action

Antibiotic Action is the public engagement initiative of theBritish Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (BSAC). It works to raise awareness not only within the public sector but also among professionals and politicians, to raise AMR on the political agenda. It started as a UK-based initiative but quickly became international, with advocates, or “Champions”, from around the world helping to raise awareness in their communities. Antibiotic Action also acts as the secretariat to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Antibiotics in the UK http://appg-on-antibiotics.com/.

Antibiotic Action seeks to inform and educate all about the need for discovery, research and development of new antibiotics. It contributes to national and international activities and acts as a conduit through which all stakeholders are educated on the importance of new ways to treat bacterial infections.Antibiotic Action is overseen by an Advisory Group comprising antibiotic experts from academic research, pharmaceutical industry, regulation, clinical practice, international affairs and patients. Antibiotic Action is now a key player on the global stage, working alongside colleagues in Europe, the United States and further afield. It is working to identify how all sectors can be informed of the pending crisis of no new antibiotics, and identify what opportunities exist for discovery, research, and development – to ensure new antibiotics.

APUA (Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics)

This alliance has been the leading global non-governmental organization fighting to preserve the effectiveness of antimicrobial drugs since 1981. With affiliated chapters in over 66 developed and developing countries, we conduct research, education and advocacy programs to control antimicrobial resistance and ensure access to effective antibiotics for current and future generations.

ESCMID received the prestigious APUA Award in 2011

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BSAC (British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy)

Inter-professional organisation with over 40 years of experience and achievement in antibiotic education, research and leadership. BSAC has founded and manages a variety of projects tackling antimicrobial resistance:

CAESAR (Central Asian and Eastern European Surveillance of Antimicrobial Resistance)

This network is a joint initiative of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID) with strong involvement of its Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance group (ESGARS), the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) and WHO/Europe, to survey, contain and prevent emergence and spread of antibiotic resistance in the European Region.

The aim of CAESAR is to gradually set up a network of national AMR surveillance systems in all countries of the Region that are not part of the AMR surveillance network EARS-Net of the European Commission, coordinated by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). In order to enable comparison of data in the whole Region, the methodology of EARS-Net will be used in close collaboration with ECDC. This would enable joined reports of antibiotic resistance for all 53 countries based on the same standards and methodologies in the future.

The Chennai meeting in August 2012 was the first-ever meeting of medical societies in India on issue of tackling resistance, developing a plan to formulate a road-map to tackle the global challenge of antimicrobial resistance from the Indian perspective. The meeting had representatives from most medical societies in India, eminent policy makers from both central and state governments, representatives of World Health Organization, National Accreditation Board of Hospitals, Medical Council of India, Drug Controller General of India, and Indian Council of Medical Research, along with well-known dignitaries in the Indian medical field.

The Chennai Declaration named after the city where the meeting took place, is the consensus that evolved out of the meeting and is co-authored by representatives of various medical societies. The document is based on realistic goals and objectives, with a deep understanding of the background Indian scenario.

CIDRAP-ASP: a repository for antimicrobial information and resources

The Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) Antimicrobial Stewardship Project (ASP) at the University of Minnesota seeks to be a high-quality, international repository for experiential- and evidence-based antimicrobial stewardship information and resources.

The site provides breaking news, policy updates, extensive bibliographies, websymposiums and podcasts with international experts and a free weekly electronic newsletter that will keep you up to date on stewardship and resistance issues.

For further information, see the CIDRAP-ASP brochure.

EAAD (European Antibiotics Awareness Day)

This day is an annual European public health initiative that takes place on 18 November to raise awareness about the threat to public health of antibiotic resistance and prudent antibiotic use. The latest data confirms that across the European Union the number of patients infected by resistant bacteria is increasing and that antibiotic resistance is a major threat to public health.

Prudent use of antibiotics can help stop resistant bacteria from developing and help keep antibiotics effective for the use of future generations.

ECDC website on antimicrobial resistance

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control is an independent agency of the European Union whose mission is to strengthen Europe's defences against infectious diseases. This website lists official documents related to AMR, fact sheets, resources, links, news, events and much more.

GAFFI (Global Action Fund for Fungal Infections)

Fungal Infections are neglected diseases worldwide. Globally, over 300 million people of all ages are estimated to suffer from a serious fungal infection every year. Of these, over 1,350,000 people are estimated to die. In comparison, deaths from malaria and tuberculosis are 1,240,000 and 1,400,000 respectively.

GAFFI’S VISION is to reduce illness and death associated with fungal diseases worldwide.

GAFFI’S MISSION is to improve the health of patients suffering from serious fungal infections through better patient care, improved access to diagnostics and treatment, and by provision of educational resources to health professionals.

As a Geneva-based Foundation, GAFFI will be the major advocacy and fund raising body for a number of implementing partners, including governments and both national and international global health agencies.

GARP (Global Antibiotic Resistance Partnership)

This partnership develops actionable policy proposals on antibiotic resistance for low- and middle-income countries. Proposals identify weaknesses in how antibiotics are developed, regulated, and managed, and how well countries track antibiotic use and resistance. Phase 1 of GARP encompassed work in four countries: India, Kenya, South Africa, and Vietnam. The expertise and capacity developed in these initial four countries is the core of a wider partnership involving other low- and middle-income countries to create greater awareness among national policymakers about the need for policies to control antibiotic resistance as part of a worldwide effort.

GARP is a project of the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy (CDDEP), Washington, United States & New Delhi, India.

GRACE (Genomics to Combat Resistance against Antibiotics in Community-acquired LRTI in Europe)

ESCMID was a partner of GRACE, which was a network of excellence devoted to tackling the increasing problem of resistance to antibiotics when dealing with lower respiratory tract infections, such as bronchitis or pneumonia. To this goal, GRACE pooled European expertise and excellence in this field to increase knowledge and competence and to raise professional and public awareness.

The GRACE educational team developed a curriculum and provided acquired knowledge through state-of-the-art training opportunities. These comprised one-day PG courses, arranged by ERS and ESCMID during their annual congresses, three-day workshops and the freely available GRACE e-learning platform with recordings and downloadable material from past GRACE events. Target audience included primary care and hospital physicians, researchers and public health specialists interested in better management of community-acquired LRTI.

The GRACE project has been running from March 2006 until August 2011. To consolidate the expertise integrated in the GRACE Network of Excellence, beyond EC funding,  the TRACE project has been launched (Translational Research on Antimicrobial resistance and Community-acquired infections in Europe). It aims to steer ongoing and to deploy new research activities based on GRACE, and to disseminate its results.

Additional links:

Curriculum development (article)

ERS homepage

Information on TRACE

JPIAMR (Joint Programme Initiative on Antimicrobial Resistance)

Antibiotic resistance is a global problem for all of us. Resistance leads to infections that cannot be easily treated with the current antibiotics. A global reduction of the resistance of harmful microbes to treatment such as antibiotics will lead to reduced health costs and saved lives. Research of the resistance in Europe is fragmented and few countries have specific programs dedicated to this field of research.

To reach this goal, 19 Member states have joined forces in the Joint Programme Initiative on Antimicrobial Resistance (JPIAMR) to coordinate the research, in order to allow greater impact and avoid duplication. Only by bringing together industry, public health bodies and academic bodies to share experience and resources across scientific disciplines will we be able to create long term reduction of antimicrobial resistance in Europe.

Important links :
- https://www.jpiamr.eu/about/
- https://www.jpiamr.eu/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/JPIAMR_SRIA_final.pdf
- https://www.jpiamr.eu/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/JPIAMR-Roadmap_2019-2024.pdf
- https://www.jpiamr.eu/jpiamr-vri/

ReAct (Action on Antibiotic Resistance)

ReAct is an independent global network for concerted action on antibiotic resistance. ReAct aims for profound change in awareness and action to manage the interacting social, political, ecological and technical forces that drive the rising rate of resistant human and animal infection and the rapid spread of resistance within and between communities and countries.

ReAct acts as a forum for ideas, debate and collaboration between diverse stakeholders. It believes change will depend on engaging with social movements, civil society, community and consumer organizations, academia, health policy reformers and those individuals, networks or institutions that generate and analyze health-related knowledge and catalysing interaction between them on the issue.

Our vision is that current and future generations of people around the world will have access to effective prevention and treatment of bacterial infections as part of their right to health.

Review on Antimicrobial Resistance

The Review on Antimicrobial Resistance was commissioned in July 2014 by the UK Prime Minister, who asked economist Jim O’Neill to analyse the global problem of rising drug resistance and propose concrete actions to tackle it internationally. The Review on AMR was jointly supported by the UK Government and Wellcome Trust, although operated with full independence from both. Established as a two-year, time-limited process, the Review engaged widely with international stakeholders to understand and propose solutions to the problem of drug-resistant infections from an economic and social perspective, and produced its final report and recommendations in the summer of 2016.

TRACE (Translational Research on Antimicrobial resistance and Community-acquired infections in Europe)

This Research Networking Programme (RNP, 2011 - 2016) is supported by the European Science Foundation (ESF). TRACE aims to consolidate the expertise integrated in several research programmes, in particular within the GRACE Network of Excellence, beyond European Commission funding, and to apply it to steer ongoing and to deploy new research activities, and to disseminate its results.

Additonal links:

Information on GRACE

TROCAR (Translational Research on Combating Antimicrobial Resistance)

ESCMID was partner of this project (2009-2012) funded by the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Commission.

The driving concept of TROCAR was to investigate the fundamentals of the epidemiology of new highly virulent multiresistant strains. The project focussed on:

  • Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA);
  • Vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus spp. (VRE);
  • Extended-spectrum, metallo- and acquired AmpC beta-lactamase (ESMAC-BL) producing Enterobacteriaceae;
  • Multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa;
  • and Multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii.

In 2012, a World Alliance against multi-drug-resistant bacteria has been created – the World Alliance against Antibiotic Resistance (WAAAR). The WAAAR gathers 350 professionals from many aspects of human and animal medicine who support this alliance, as well as 54 medical specialties or professional bodies all around the world. Eighty well-known international experts, including many intensivists, from 41 different countries constitute our international scientific advisory committee.

The alliance will contact organisations such as the World Organization for animal Health (OIE), the World Health Organization, and the European Centre for Diseases Control. Ministers of Health and other key politicians will be contacted by the members of the WAAAR, in each country. Of course, contacts with other groups (React, Action Antibiotics, Alliance for a Prudent Use of Antibiotics (APUA), and so forth) are essential, and have already been taken.

WHO website on antimicrobial resistance

This website lists official documents related to AMR, fact sheets, resources, links, news, events and much more.