Executive Summary: Global Antimicrobial Resistance Alerts and Implications

The 2005 Global Advisory on Antibiotic Resistance Data (GAARD) Report, for the first time, provides a uniquely comprehensive view of drug resistance patterns across the major infectious diseases. It combines findings from diverse surveillance systems run by the world’s leading infectious disease experts who are tracking resistance worldwide. The document focuses on the most troubling and urgent infectious disease threats whose cures are imperiled by antimicrobial resistance: HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, gonorrhea, pneumonia, and hospital-associated infections. By presenting this comprehensive view, the international scientists and clinicians who contributed to this report are sending an alert to policy makers and health professionals about the enormity of the threat posed by antimicrobial resistance, the need for surveillance to track resistance and guide treatment decisions, and the mandate for more appropriate use of antimicrobials. Prudent prescribing and dispensing of antimicrobials maximizes clinical therapeutic effectiveness while minimizing drug-related toxicity and containing health care expenses and drug resistance. Nationally, surveillance can promote evidence-based purchasing and distribution decisions and sound drug regulatory policies and quality control practices. In 1998, the Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics (APUA) formed the GAARD project in an effort to support and learn from the existing surveillance infrastructure. GAARD brings together the world’s largest surveillance systems, integrating antimicrobial resistance data from the various networks for special studies designed to inform public health policy. Pharmaceutical companies agreed to contribute data