WHO handbook aims to help countries implement AMR action plans
The World Health Organization (WHO) this week published new technical guidance to help countries implement national action plans (NAPs) for antimicrobial resistance in the human health sector.
Written for national health authorities, policymakers, technical experts, and other stakeholders, the WHO implementation handbook aims to help fill significant gaps in countries' implementation of NAPs. A recent survey by the WHO, the World Organisation for Animal Health, and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization showed that, of the 117 countries with NAPs, only 20% had fully financed those plans.
"For most countries, the greatest challenge is not developing a NAP; rather, it is achieving NAP implementation that is evidence-based and demonstrates sustained action," the document states.
The handbook lays out six steps for sustainable implementation of NAPs in the healthcare system. The steps include strengthening governance, prioritizing activities based on an assessment of the current situation, estimating costs and developing a budget for prioritized activities, mobilizing resources to fund the plan, implementing the prioritized activities, and monitoring and evaluating progress in implementing the plan.
Each chapter in the handbook provides specific instructions on the six steps, links to existing WHO guidance and tools to support implementation, and checklists. An online version of the handbook will contain case studies.
Future handbooks will provide technical guidance for NAP implementation in the animal health, food safety, and environment sector.
Feb 28 WHO implementation handbook
Study finds high levels of multidrug-resistant E coli on Chinese pig farms
A surveillance study of Chinese pig farms found a high level of multidrug resistance in Escherichia coli samples from pigs and their breeding environments, Chinese researchers reported yesterday in Nature Communications.
For the study, researchers from Huazhong Agricultural University collected and conducted antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) on 1,871 E coli isolates from pig farms in 31 Chinese provinces from October 2018 through September 2019. China is the largest pig-rearing country in the world, and E coli is a commonly used biomarker of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) on pig farms. The most representative provinces by isolate were Hubei (250 isolates) and Henan (191), the two largest pig-farming provinces in the country.
AST results showed that 90.5% of the 1,871 isolates were multidrug-resistant (MDR) strains. A large proportion of isolates were resistant to tetracycline (96.2%), chloramphenicol (82%), moxifloxacin (81.6%), and trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole (80.3%). Resistance was also detected to last-resort antibiotics such as tigecycline (37.3%), colistin (3.8%), and carbapenems (imipenem [2.6%], meropenem [2.3%], and ertapenem [2.5]). Most colistin-resistant and carbapenem-resistant isolates came from Henan province.
The study also identified a heterogeneous group of O-serogroups and sequence types among the MDR isolates. These isolates harbored multiple resistance genes, virulence factor-encoding genes, and putative plasmids. In addition, phylogenetic analysis showed that 515 of the MDR E coli isolates from the pig farms were closely related to 287 publicly available draft genomes of human commensal E coli strains from across China. These findings suggest a high genetic propensity spread from pig farms to humans that poses health risks.
"Our AST results suggest a worrisome AMR situation on pig farms, as evidenced by the common recovery of MDR E. coli isolates from both pigs and their breeding environments on farms in different provinces, including Tibet, Xinjiang, and Qinghai," the study authors wrote. "This worrisome situation is widely accepted to be the result of antibiotic overuse and misuse in the Chinese pig industry."
The authors say the data may help inform governmental efforts to reduce antibiotic use and AMR in the Chinese pig industry.
Mar 2 Nat Commun study