The strategic plan for combating antimicrobial resistance in Gulf Cooperation Council States.
The Gulf Cooperation Council Center for Infection Control (GCC-IC) has placed the emergence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) on the top of its agenda for the past four years. The board members have developed the initial draft for the GCC strategic plan for combating AMR in 2014. The strategic plan stems from the WHO mandate to combat AMR at all levels. The need for engaging a large number of stakeholders has prompted the GCC-IC to engage a wider core of professionals in finalizing the plan. A multi-disciplinary group of more than 40 experts were then identified. And a workshop was conducted in Riyadh January 2015 and included, for the first time, representation of relevant ministries and agencies as well as international experts in the field. Participants worked over a period of two and a half days in different groups. International experts shared the global experiences and challenges in addressing human, food, animal, and environmental aspects of controlling AMR. Participants were then divided into 4 groups each to address the human, animal, microbiological and diagnostic, or the environmental aspect of AMR. At the end of the workshop, the strategic plan was revised and endorsed by all participants. The GCC-IC board members then approved it as the strategic plan for AMR. The document produced here is the first GCC strategic plan addressing AMR, which shall be adopted by GCC countries to develop country-based plans and related key performance indicators (KPIs). It is now the role of each country to identify the body that will be accountable for implementing the plan at the country level.
King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Riyadh Saudi Arabia; Infection Prevention and Control Department King Abdulaziz Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; GCC Center for Infection Control, Ministry of National Guard-Health Affairs, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Electronic address: balkhyh@hotmail.com.
Hanan H
HH
Balkhy
Ministry of Health, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Abdullah M
AM
Assiri
Ministry of Health, Kuwait, Kuwait.
Haifa Al
HA
Mousa
Ministry of Health, Muscat, Oman.
Seif S
SS
Al-Abri
Ministry of Public Health, Doha, Qatar.
Huda
H
Al-Katheeri
Ministry of Health, Almanamah, Bahrain.
Huda
H
Alansari
Ministry of Health, United Arab Emirates.
Najiba M
NM
Abdulrazzaq
Department of Food Safety and Zoonosis, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland.
Awa
A
Aidara-Kane
Infection Control Programme and World Health Organization Collaborating Centre on Patient Safety, University of Geneva Hospitals, Geneva, Switzerland.
Didier
D
Pittet
D000818:Animals; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D024881:Drug Resistance, Bacterial; D004363:Drug Utilization / Q000592:standards*; D004493:Education; D006291:Health Policy; D006801:Humans; D008877:Middle East
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents
AMR; Antimicrobial resistance; Bahrain; GCC; Kuwait; Oman; Qatar; Saudi Arabia; Strategic plan; United Arab Emirates