Summary report published as technical document with reference number: WHO/HSE/PED/AIP/2014.2.

The GLASS Report 2021 highlights the new GLASS technical module on antimicrobial consumption surveillance, GLASS-AMC, and summarizes the results of the 2020 AMR and AMC data calls. It also describes the status of development of GLASS activities and WHO AMR-related activities globally and regionally.

"In May 2015, the Sixty-eighth World Health Assembly adopted the Global action plan on antimicrobial resistance, which reflects the global consensus that AMR poses a profound threat to human health. One of the five strategic objectives of the Global action plan is to strengthen the evidence base through enhanced global surveillance and research. The Global Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance System (GLASS) has been developed to facilitate and encourage a standardized approach to AMR surveillance globally and in turn support the implementation of the Global action plan on antimicrobial resistance. This manual addresses the early phase of implementation of GLASS, focussing on surveillance of resistance in common human bacterial pathogens. The intended readership of this publication is public health professionals and health authorities responsible for national AMR surveillance. It outlines the GLASS standards and describes the road map for implementation of the system between 2015 and 2019. Further development of GLASS will be based on the lessons learnt during this period"--Publisher's description.

The WHO 2022 report from the Global Antimicrobial Resistance and Use Surveillance System (GLASS) marks the end of the first 5 years of early implementation. The report summarizes 2020 data from 87 countries on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in bacteria that cause disease in humans, analyses the 2021 AMR rates in the context of the testing coverage of national surveillance, and provides data on antimicrobial consumption (AMC) in humans from 27 countries. For the first time, data are presented in an interactive digital format, with more comprehensive content on the WHO website.

The National Strategy for Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria, published in 2014, sets out a plan for government work to mitigate the emergence and spread of resistant bacteria. Direction on the implementation of this strategy is provided in five-year national action plans, the first covering 2015 to 2020, and the second covering 2020 to 2025. Combating Antimicrobial Resistance and Protecting the Miracle of Modern Medicine evaluates progress made against the national strategy. This report discusses ways to improve detection of resistant infections and estimate the risk to human health from environmental sources of resistance. In addition, the report considers the effect of agricultural practices on human and animal health and animal welfare and ways these practices could be improved, and advises on key drugs and diseases for which animal-specific test breakpoints are needed.

Avoiding infection has always been expensive. Some human populations escaped tropical infections by migrating into cold climates but then had to procure fuel, warm clothing, durable housing, and crops from a short growing season. Waterborne infections were averted by owning your own well or supporting a community reservoir. Everyone got vaccines in rich countries, while people in others got them later if at all. Antimicrobial agents seemed at first to be an exception. They did not need to be delivered through a cold chain and to everyone, as vaccines did. They had to be given only to infected patients and often then as relatively cheap injectables or pills off a shelf for only a few days to get astonishing cures. Antimicrobials not only were better than most other innovations but also reached more of the world’s people sooner. The problem appeared later. After each new antimicrobial became widely used, genes expressing resistance to it began to emerge and spread through bacterial populations. Patients infected with bacteria expressing such resistance genes then failed treatment and remained infected or died. Growing resistance to antimicrobial agents began to take away more and more of the cures that the agents had brought.