CDC https://www.cdc.gov has awarded $22 million to nearly 30 organizations worldwide to combat Antimicrobial Resistance (AR) and other healthcare threats by establishing two new networks.
The networks are called the Global Action in Healthcare Network (GAIHN) and the Global AR Laboratory and Response Network (Global AR Lab & Response Network.)
GAIHN https://cdc.gov/infectioncontrol/global/GAIHN.html is to create a global collaborative network of countries, institutions, and partners at global, regional, national, and subnational levels to address and reduce priority emerging infections in healthcare.
Global AR Lab & Response Network https://cdc.gov/drugresistance/ar-lab-network/global.html will improve the detection of emerging AR threats and identify risk factors that drive the emergence and spread of AR across healthcare, communities, and the environment.
This new network will be able to target emerging and existing AR threats, such as healthcare pathogens, drug resistant enteric pathogens, fungal pathogens, invasive bacterial and respiratory pathogens, and Neisseria gonorrhoeae.
The two new networks in collaboration will be paired with additional short term research projects that will span more than 50 countries worldwide to focus on preventing infections in healthcare through proven infection control.
The plans are to build laboratory capacity to detect antimicrobial-resistant organisms in healthcare, communities and the environment. The plan is to develop new and innovative ways to more rapidly detect and respond to threats like AR and COVID-19.
The work will build on efforts launched through CDC’s AR Solutions Initiative which will complement ongoing effective global work underway by CDC and public health partners worldwide. The networks and research projects will also tackle threats and other healthcare associated infections.
In addition to the network, CDC has also invested in short-term global AR innovation research projects by working with investigators to identify new public health solutions to prevent antimicrobial-resistant infections and their spread. Findings from the global AR innovation projects may later be integrated into the Global AR Lab & Response Network to transform the way the world responds to AR.
One CDC innovative research project is enabling Johns Hopkins University researchers to study infection prevention and control programs in Latin American hospitals. Today, Latin American countries are facing a high burden of healthcare-associated and antibiotic-resistant infections.
The goal is for the JHU research findings to help develop a toolkit that other countries or facilities facing similar challenges will use to improve their infection prevention and control efforts to reduce the spread of infections not only in their countries but worldwide.