SEOUL, South Korea — An international consortium, led by the International Vaccine Institute (IVI), has received funding from the UK’s Fleming Fund Regional Grants to conduct the Capturing Data on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Patterns and Trends in Use in Regions of Asia (CAPTURA) project. The CAPTURA consortium also includes the Public Health Surveillance Group (PHSG), the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and the University of Oxford’s Big Data Institute (BDI).
According to the World Health Organization, AMR is one of the biggest threats to global public health; if current trends continue unabated, by 2050 there will be 10 million deaths annually and a yearly cost of $100 trillion dollars*. The 2018 World Health Organization (WHO) Global Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance System (GLASS) Report argued that putting resources into the containment of AMR – including surveillance – is one of the highest-yield investments a country can make to mitigate its impact.
Lucy Andrews, Head of the Fleming Fund said: “To combat the serious risk that AMR poses to global health there is still much more we need to learn about its geographical distribution and the scale of the problem, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. This project will help us to better understand the scope and scale of the problem through improving access to data on antimicrobial resistance and trends in use of antimicrobial medicines.”
Dr. Jerome Kim, the Director General of IVI added: “IVI’s work with CAPTURA is based on our belief that stronger data will inform better policy and that vaccines have an important role to play combatting AMR.”
CAPTURA aims to: increase the volume of data available to improve spatiotemporal mapping of AMR and antimicrobial use (AMU); assess the quality of data and provide meta-data to give regional and inter-regional context; undertake analysis of the data; and ensure findings are disseminated locally, regionally and globally. The project will identify gaps in data and areas for quality improvement that can be addressed in future initiatives to strengthen surveillance capacity. Finally, the information resource generated by the project will improve awareness, advocacy, policy, and interventions needed to combat AMR and antimicrobial misuse.
While CAPTURA will collaborate with 6 countries in South Asia and 6 countries in South East Asia, a parallel project, Mapping Antimicrobial Resistance and Antimicrobial Use Partnership (MAAP), also supported by the Fleming Fund, will collect similar data on AMR and AMU across 12 African countries of West, East and Southern Africa. The MAAP project is led by the African Society for Laboratory Medicine (ASLM) and gathers a unique set of expertise through its partnership with the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy (CDDEP), IQVIA Solutions (Pty) Ltd., Africa CDC, the West African Health Organization (WAHO), the East, Central and Southern Africa Health Community (ECSA), and Innovative Support to Emergencies, Diseases and Disasters (InSTEDD).
“IVI is privileged to lead CAPTURA and collaborate with internationally renowned organizations in AMR to address one of the most pressing challenges in global health,” said Dr. Florian Marks, who is the program director at IVI. Dr. Marianne Holm, the IVI technical lead, noted, “We will cultivate important relationships with local authorities, and through capacity building ensure sustainability for data collection and AMR surveillance work.”
In addition to IVI, the Public Health Surveillance Group will work alongside local stakeholders to support all in-country activities across the 12 countries involved. Bill MacWright and his team from PHSG, will also provide subject matter expertise in the development of protocols, training modules and monitoring.
Drs O’Brien and Stelling from the Brigham and Women’s Hospital have developed, disseminated, and supported the WHONET software since 1989, www.whonet.org. WHONET currently supports local, national, and regional AMR surveillance activities in over 2,300 hospitals and public health, food, and veterinary laboratories in over 120 countries. WHONET is already actively used in most CAPTURA countries, capturing and standardizing data from diverse laboratory information systems into a common platform, facilitating integrated management, analysis, and interpretation of microbiological findings.
Prof David Aanensen and team from the Big Data Institute, University of Oxford have developed global methods for mobile data capture (http://five.Epicollect.net) and epidemiological data linkage (http://microreact.org) to enable the analyses and visualization of very large datasets. Their expertise will guide the collection and analysis of datasets (including genomic data), interpretation, visualization, and delivery tools.
For more information on the CAPTURA project, please visit captura.ivi.int or contact Dr. Marianne Holm, IVI Research Scientist, at marianne.holm@ivi.int
For more information about IVI, please visit: www.ivi.int
For more information about the consortium partners please visit:
* Source: Tracking Drug-Resistant Infections Globally: Final Report and Recommendations
CONTACT
Tae Kyung Byun, Senior Manager of Communications, IVI
+82 2 881 1159 | tkbyun@ivi.int