Antimicrobials, medicines that kill or inhibit the growth and replication of microbes, have been a groundbreaking medical advancement in treating deadly infections since the early 20th century. However, the misuse and overuse of these agents have contributed to the development of resistance, rendering once-effective treatments increasingly ineffective. This phenomenon, known as antimicrobial resistance (AMR), is an evolving global health threat of significant concern.
While the 20th century saw a rapid rise in the discovery and development of antimicrobials, many of these drugs are now losing their efficacy as resistance continues to grow. Alarmingly, there are few new antimicrobials in the pipeline to replace or address the widening gap in effective treatments, further exacerbating the challenge of combating resistant infections worldwide.
There are actions that health workers and individuals can take immediately to help slow the development and spread of resistant pathogens. These include the judicious use of antimicrobials, adherence to strict infection control practices, and the widespread use of vaccines.
At the International Vaccine Institute, we and our partners, are working directly with governments, health institutions, and donors to develop systemic solutions and advocate for the use of vaccines to tackle the global spread and emergence of AMR.
Providing quality data to support effective policy
IVI, along with its consortium of partners, is conducting multi-country efforts focused on low- and middle-income countries to assess the quality and quantity of available data, identify existing gaps, and provide technical and capacity-building support for the generation of high-quality data. This will help estimate the disease and economic burden of AMR and antimicrobial use. Using local data is crucial for countries to streamline and strengthen their prospective surveillance efforts, ensuring the development of effective policies for monitoring and containment of AMR. In line with IVI’s mission, the AMR team is strategically generating real-world evidence on impact of AMR while advocating for the use of vaccines for AMR at the global level.
Through five separate Fleming Fund Regional Grants, funded by the UK government, along with its own internal funding, IVI is working with countries across Asia and sub-Saharan Africa to identify, evaluate, and generate high-quality data on AMR and the impact of vaccines. This data will support effective policymaking in low- and middle-income countries and help strengthen their systems in the fight against the threat of resistant pathogens.
Reliable and timely data are essential to generating evidence that persuades policymakers to invest in sustainable AMR solutions.
CAPTURA 2
Improving AMR data quality, analysis, dissemination, and use in Asia
The IVI-led CAPTURA consortium is working with countries across South and Southeast Asia to generate high quality AMR data, analyze it, and facilitate its use in policymaking within the human health sector. The project aims to enhance these countries’ capacity to improve the quality, quantity, analysis, and dissemination of AMR data while providing technical assistance to help shape evidence-based policies.
RADAAR 2
Leveraging AMR data to inform and drive effective policymaking
Policymakers are looking for answers to deceptively simple questions about AMR:
- Where are we today?
- Where do we need to go?
- How do we get there?
- What works?
- How much is it going to cost?
These questions, in turn, give rise to a further set of policy-relevant questions:
- What type of data and evidence is needed?
- What kind of analyses are required?
- How do we synthesize multiple sources of data and evidence meaningfully?
- How do we translate this knowledge into effective policies?
The RADAAR (Regional AMR Data Analysis for Advocacy, Response, and Policy) project and its consortium partners are spearheading an effort to catalyze regional AMR data-sharing and analysis to influence national, regional, and global policies for sustained commitment to AMR control.
RADAAR Phase 2 works with Fleming Fund priority countries in Africa and Asia to:
- Improve AMR data and evidence analysis, sharing, and use in policy, across One Health sectors
- Establish mechanisms to facilitate policy dialogue around AMR
- Create demand (among policymakers) for policy-relevant AMR data and analysis
Phase 2 initiatives include:
- Enhancing evidence-informed policy
- Establishing AMR knowledge synthesis and translation platforms
- Training in AMR policy advocacy; media and community engagement; and understanding of the socio-economic and socio-behavioral dimensions of AMR
EQASIA 2
Strengthening external quality assurance programs across reference labs in Asia
The Technical University of Denmark’s National Food Institute is leading the initiative with IVI, and Chulalongkorn University to enhance the quality of bacteriology diagnostics in national reference laboratories across Asia. Addressing the quality of bacteriology diagnostics at the regional level, and across all One Health sectors, is crucial to ensuring that lab data is accurate, comparable, and aligned with international standards, making it valuable for national surveillance efforts.
Through EQASIA, we are working to strengthen external quality assurance programs for AMR by delivering comprehensive proficiency testing schemes and training. Currently, more than 80 laboratories across Asia are participating in the external quality assurance program for bacteriology under the One Health approach. These laboratories are also engaging in hands-on training, while the EQASIA team is supporting Bangladesh and Nepal in developing their own National External Quality Assurance (NEQAs) programs following EQASIA architecture.
TADEU
Generating evidence on the economic evaluations and models of AMR
The Technical Assistance for Data and Evidence Use (TADEU) project provides technical assistance to support data production and improve the use of AMR data and evidence, with a particular focus on the economic evaluations of AMR.
These evaluations play a critical role in generating evidence required for decision-making. Given that there are always other competing health problems within a country and that budget is limited, it is important to prioritize public health interventions and maximize the efficient allocation of limited resources based on economic evaluations. The TADEU team introduces the comprehensive economic evaluation work package in order to generate critical evidence on AMR economic and business cases for policy and decision makers.
TACE
Improving the use of diagnostic services, and antimicrobial resistance, use, and consumption data, along with burden data, in clinical practice in the human health sector
The Technical Assistance for Clinical Engagement (TACE) project offers technical support to identify, engage, and train national health and clinical leadership as well as AMR leads in Asia, to effectively use laboratory data for clinical decision-making. Additionally, the project provides countries with standardized protocols, technical expertise for generating disease burden data, and training on data analysis and its use.
Vaccine impact on AMR
Assessing the impact of vaccines on AMR
IVI is leading studies in Madagascar and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to generate real-world evidence on the impact of vaccines on AMR. These proof-of-concept projects are designed to provide insights into the types of data to be generated, which will inform and guide future studies that need to be conducted during various vaccination campaigns. The projects actively follow vaccinated and unvaccinated cohorts, collecting clinical samples at different time points to assess and compare changes in resistance markers and antimicrobial use between the two cohorts.
Page updated: March 2025
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