Antimicrobial Resistance (AR) surveillance is a tremendous challenge to public health and healthcare.

The science is difficult. The microbiology and pathology of the microorganisms, antimicrobial resistance and use, stewardship, informatics, and both human and animal medical care are complex and extensive.

The organizations and systems that need to be involved in AR surveillance are also complex and extensive. AR surveillance requires interorganizational collaboration and coordination, improving the exchange of AR laboratory data among healthcare providers, clinical laboratories, public health epidemiologists, and public health laboratories; and leveraging public health informatics tools. It requires the skills and knowledge of diverse disciplines (public health epidemiology, public health leadership at the state and local levels, public health and clinical laboratories, clinical medical care (infectious disease), infection prevention and control, veterinary medicine, plant/crop health, environmental health, and informatics).

A national planning and implementation effort is needed to focus resources and efforts by many different organizations. The CSTE/CDC/APHL Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance Task Force (the “Task Force”) originated as the CDC’s response to CSTE Position Statement 13-SI-01, Recommendations for strengthening public health surveillance of antimicrobial resistance in the United States. Its goal is to build timely and sophisticated systems adequate to support the important task of AR surveillance.

Resources

• ARSTF Year 9 Progress Report
• ARSTF Workforce Development Training List
• ARSTF Year 8 Progress Report
• ARSTF Years 5-7 Progress Report: Recommendations for Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance in the United States
• ARSTF Year 4 Progress Report: Recommendations for Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance in the United States.
• ARSTF Year 3 Progress Report: Recommendations for Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance in the United States.
• ARSTF Year 2 Report and Recommendations for Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance in the United States.

In March 2017, the Task Force developed a strategic profile and scheme of organizational roles and responsibilities for strengthening AR surveillance in the United States. These documents were reviewed by the Task Force in 2022 and are considered to remain relevant and provide important background and foundational information for the ARSTF.

These key planning tools are available here:

1. Strategic Profile – summarizes the National Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance Strategic Plan for the period 2017 through 2020.
2. Roles and Responsibilities tables - a listing of tasks for each sector at each level of public health.

Feedback obtained during the ARSTF Roundtable session at the 2022 CSTE Conference reaffirmed the Task Force’s focus on four priority areas, which have been collapsed into three re-established Workgroups:

1) Promoting interoperable linkages between laboratory data and epidemiologic case findings (now inclusive of addressing the release of suppressed antimicrobial susceptibility test (AST) data);

2)Developing workforce capacity as it relates to the individuals, teams, and agencies tasked with conducting antimicrobial resistance surveillance; and

3) Approaching AR from a One Health perspective.

National Office contact: Will Fritch. This Task Force is Co-Chaired by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE), and the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL).