Implementing national antimicrobial consumption in Latin America and the Caribbean: opportunities and lessons learned

Abstract

Surveillance of antimicrobial consumption (AMC) is essential to anticipate and inform policiesand public health decisions to prevent and/or contain antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Thismanuscript shares the experience on AMC data collection in Latin American & Caribbean(LAC). The WHO GLASS-AMC methodology for AMC surveillance was used for data regis-tration during the period 2019–2022. Focal points belonging to each country were contacted andtrained for AMC source of information detection, managing registration tools, and data analysis.Thirteen countries were enrolled with significant heterogeneity in the AMC results (range 2.55–36.26 DID-AMC). This experience reflects the heterogeneity of realities in LAC countries; howeach one of the nations selected the best sources to collect AMC data, which were the mainproblems in applying the WHO-AMC collection tool, and the approach that each country gaveto the analysis of its data. Finally, some examples are provided on the use of AMC information inmaking the best decision-making related to AMR control policies at the national level.