Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance and Burden Analysis
Summary
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) threatens the effectiveness of modern medicine by diminishing the ability to treat infections with standard therapies. Surveillance forms the backbone of efforts to detect emerging resistance, monitor trends and guide public health action. It encompasses routine clinical microbiology, national and regional reporting networks, and open-source informatics tools to gather, standardise and share susceptibility data. Burden analysis builds on surveillance by applying predictive statistical models and counterfactual scenarios to estimate deaths and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) attributable to and associated with resistant infections. These estimates illuminate the leading pathogen-drug combinations, high-risk settings and geographic hotspots, thereby informing prioritisation of infection prevention, antimicrobial stewardship and research into new diagnostics, vaccines and therapeutics. Harmonising data standards, expanding laboratory capacity—particularly in low-resource settings—and ensuring sustainable, outcome-oriented surveillance programmes are essential to address the evolving global challenge of AMR.
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Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance and Burden Analysis publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in antimicrobial resistance surveillance and burden analysis across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR): The capacity of microorganisms to survive exposure to drugs intended to kill or inhibit them, reducing treatment efficacy.
Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs): A composite measure of disease burden that combines years of life lost due to premature death and years lived with disability.
Pathogen-Drug Combination: A specific pairing of a microbial species and an antimicrobial agent used to assess resistance prevalence and associated health outcomes.
References
- Global burden of bacterial antimicrobial resistance in 2019: a systematic analysis. The Lancet (2022).
- The burden of antimicrobial resistance in the Americas in 2019: a cross-country systematic analysis. The Lancet Regional Health - Americas (2023).
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