In 2015, the World Health Organization (WHO) Member States unanimously approved a Global Action Plan to tackle antimicrobial resistance (GAP-AMR), “to ensure, for as long as possible, continuity of successful treatment and prevention of infectious diseases with effective and safe medicines that are quality-assured, used in a responsible way, and accessible to all who need them”.
AMR surveillance is essential to detect the presence and spread of AMR, to inform treatment guidelines, and to monitor the effect of local, national and global strategies. On 22 October 2015, WHO launched the Global Antimicrobial Resistance and Use Surveillance System (GLASS). GLASS was developed to support the second objective of the GAP-AMR initiative to “strengthen knowledge through surveillance and research” and was endorsed by the Sixty-eighth World Health Assembly in resolution WHA68.7. GLASS provides a standardized approach to the collection, analysis, interpretation and sharing of AMR data.
The first GLASS data call was in July 2017, when 42 countries were enrolled in GLASS and 22 provided 2016 AMR data. By the end of 2022, 127 countries, territories and areas were participating in GLASS. This presentation outlines the development, structure and progress of the GLASS, the activities of the WHO Collaborating Centre AMR Network, and Australia’s contribution of AMR to GLASS.