As you know by now, there are major gaps in surveillance of antibiotic resistance and the magnitude of the problem and its impact on global health is still largely unknown.
However, there are a few examples of online resources for mapping antibiotic resistance. One of them is the website ResistanceMap developed by the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy (CDDEP). This is an interactive collection of charts and maps that summarize national and subnational data on antibiotic use and resistance worldwide. The data come from a variety of sources; from small private laboratories in India to large datasets from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).
Another example is developed by the independent UK charity Nesta. This interactive data visualization uses data from the ECDC and shows acquired resistance of five common bacteria to a range of antibiotics. This resource includes only data from EU/EEA member states.
Reflection point
If you haven’t already done so, go visit the websites of ResistanceMap and/or Nesta and start to investigate!
Please reflect upon the following:
- Is it possible to identify the countries that suffer the most from antibiotic resistance?
- Which countries lack surveillance data? Are data scarce only for low- and middle-income countries, or high-income countries as well?
- Which antibiotic-resistant bacteria are usually monitored?
Find out more
If you are interested in learning more about interactive visualization tools, please visit this page in the ReAct Toolbox.
© Uppsala University
More from "Part 1"
- Welcome to the course
- Meet the course team
- Glossary
- The discovery of antibiotics
- The burden of antibiotic resistance
- Warm-up exercise
- Has Fleming’s warning been ignored?
- Experiences from the field
- Antibiotic resistance in the media
- Test your understanding I
- Reflection and analysis: the importance of surveillance
- End of part 1