On October 30, 2009 a joint INDEPTH-ReAct workshop was held in Pune, India The meeting was attended by 33 participants representing four continents; Asia, Africa, Europe and Oceania. The purpose of the workshop was to explore the possibility for the two networks to collaborate in the field of antibiotic resistance. |  |
Statement of the INDEPTH-ReAct Antibiotic Resistance Workshop
On October 30, 2009 a joint INDEPTH-ReAct workshop was held in Pune, India as a sideline to the INDEPTH Annual General Meeting held from 26 to 29 October.
The meeting was attended by 33 participants from both INDEPTH and ReAct, representing four continents; Asia, Africa, Europe and Oceania.
Although the situation varies among regions, countries and settings, the workshop participants agreed on the following:
- Bacterial resistance to antibiotics is a serious global public health threat that must be urgently addressed by the World Health Organization, International and professional organizations and national governments;
- The use of antibiotics is widespread and often uncontrolled - in many places these drugs are readily available from street vendors, pharmacies, unqualified prescribers;
- Antibiotics are regularly used for common colds and other diseases for which they have no effect or are not indicated. Implementation of guidelines and national policies, if available, are weak;
- Because of the lack of rapid point of care diagnostic tests, as well as poorly developed basic laboratory capacity, antibiotic use is often presumptive, without any knowledge of the cause of the infection or the susceptibility of the pathogen;
- Data on bacterial resistance are scanty but show in many cases worrying increasing trends of several infections becoming unresponsive to first line antibiotics. There are also examples of neonatal infections caused by bacteria resistant to all available antibiotics except for colistin, which is an old and toxic drug;
- Resistance levels in bacteria vary both between and within countries. To support the development of treatment guidelines and recommendations, bacterial resistance needs to be taken into account and surveillance of regional resistance patterns are needed at regular intervals;
- Data on resistance levels and antibiotic use is lacking, particularly from low income countries;
- There is an urgent need to document on the global scale the magnitude of antibiotic use. Population based studies on the prevalence of resistance and treatment failures, mortality and costs attributable to resistance are needed. The INDEPTH network of Health and Demographic Surveillance System Sites (HDSS) is well suited to conduct such studies;
Workshop participants came from: Australia, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Kenya, Ghana, India, Malaysia, Mozambique, Nepal, the Netherlands, Sweden, Tanzania, Thailand, Uganda and Vietnam |
