The AR-ISS antimicrobial resistance surveillance system: an effective tool for improving antibiotic stewardship

Objectives: to analyze antibiotic-resistance data collected at the Microbiology and Virology Laboratory of Azienda Ospedaliera SS. Antonio e Biagio e Cesare Arrigo of Alessandria between 2019 and 2020. Methods: over the last decades, bacterial resistance to antimicrobial agents increased world-wide until becoming one of the biggest public health challenges of our time, so that it is now listed by European Community as a special health issue covered by a the surveillance system, EARS-Net. In Italy, the AR-ISS antibiotic-resistance surveillance network, coordinated by the National Institute of Health, is an essential tool to study and describe its appearance and its spread. The system is based on a network of hospital laboratories throughout the national areas, which sends routine antibiotic susceptibility data to selected pathogens by invasive infections. Here, in the framework of the AR-ISS network, we present 2019 and 2020 annual surveillance reports regarding Azienda Ospedaliera of Alessandria. Results: we analyze the bacterial species under surveillance and compare data between 2020 and 2019. The European and Italian trends of the five-year period 2015-2019 for four drug/bug combinations is also evaluated. Particular attention has been paid for possible forecasts of antibiotic resistance. Conclusions: antibiotic resistance surveillance programs provide essential current and historical information for an appropriate antibiotic stewardship; possible forecasting of antibiotic resistance may be also useful for driving decisions about the mitigation strategies.