Korea joins WHO’s global antimicrobial surveillance system

South Korea has joined the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Global Antimicrobial Resistance and Use Surveillance System-Antimicrobial Consumption (GLASS-AMC), the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) and the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service (HIRA) announced on Tuesday.

GLASS-AMC provides a common and standardized set of methods for measuring and reporting antimicrobial consumption (AMC) at country, regional and global levels.

The surveillance system comprises two crucial components, one for monitoring antimicrobial resistance in pathogens and the other for aggregating data on antimicrobial usage, which play a vital role in assessing and addressing the global issue of antibiotic resistance.

The antimicrobial usage surveillance system compares daily antibiotic consumption per 1,000 people across different countries. The data, based on HIRA’s 2021 claims data, includes information about the types of antibiotics used and the methods of administration.

The results of the comparative data, along with antibiotic usage statistics from various nations, will be included in a WHO report set to be published after 2024.