Brasilia, September 1rst, 2005 - 16:20 PM
PAHO seeks for integration in the fight against microbial resistance

On 27 to 29 July, the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) participated in the Annual Meeting of the Surveillance on Resistance against antimicrobial, promoted by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), in Brasilia. The representatives of Chile, Colombia, United States, Canada, Costa Rica, Uruguay, Paraguay, Nicaragua, Peru, Dominican Republic, Argentina, Ecuador, Guatemala, Venezuela and Brazil have attended the meeting. The meeting aimed at building integrated actions to fight the microbial resistance against antibiotic drugs, based on the experiences of each participating country.

PAHO leadership emphasized the Brazilian efforts towards preventing the resistance, besides Anvisa’s initiative of acquiring the translation rights for the manuals by the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute – CLSI (former NCCLS - in portuguese). This is expected to allow the Brazilian labs to standardize the microbiological assays. Furthermore, they highlighted the importance of the Network for Monitoring and Controlling the Microbial Resistance in Health Services - the RM network, which is now training the technical staff of the labs belonging to the Sentinela and Lacens Network (pilot network). The General Management of Technology in Health Services (GGTES), of Anvisa and PAHO, are in charge of developing the training.

During the meeting, Anvisa has delivered three lectures, on the following topics: “Survey among the Brazilian Microbiology Laboratories”, “SINAIS: the new information system on hospital-related infection and microbiological data” and “The role played by the Ministry of Health and other national institutions and legislations concerning antibiotic drugs: the example of Brazil.”

The public health sector has increasingly attached attention to the microbial resistance against antibiotic drugs. This is an increasing issue worldwide, mainly concerning hospital environments. The resistance decreases the drugs efficacy, expanding the hospitalization time and increasing the treatment costs. Moreover, it has impact on the employment of drugs that are less efficient, more toxic and more expensive.

Information: Anvisa Press Office