How does
NARMS do it?
Participating health departments forward every twentieth
non-Typhi Salmonella isolate, every Salmonella
Typhi, every twentieth Shigella isolate, and
every twentieth E. coli O157 isolate received
at their public health laboratories to CDC for susceptibility
testing. Susceptibility testing involves the determination
of the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) for
17 antimicrobial agents: amikacin, ampicillin, amoxicillin-clavulanic
acid, apramycin, cefoxitin, ceftiofur, ceftriaxone,
cephalothin, chloramphenicol, ciprofloxacin, gentamicin,
imipenem, kanamycin, nalidixic acid, streptomycin,
sulfamethoxazole, tetracycline, and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole.
The FoodNet sites (California,
Colorado,
Connecticut,
Georgia,
Maryland,
Minnesota,
New
York, New
Mexico, Oregon
and Tennessee)
also send one Campylobacter isolate each week
to CDC. Susceptibility testing of Campylobacter
is performed to determine the MICs for eight antimicrobial
agents: azithromycin, chloramphenicol, ciprofloxacin,
clindamycin, erythromycin, gentamicin, nalidixic acid
and tetracycline.
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Why are
NARMS Data Useful?
Because NARMS data have been collected continually
since 1996, trend analysis is possible; this can provide
useful information about patterns of emerging resistance,
which in turn can guide mitigation efforts. NARMS
data may also be an asset to outbreak investigations.
Because antimicrobial use in food-producing animals
may result in antimicrobial resistance which can be
transmitted to humans through the food supply, antimicrobial
resistance data from humans are important for the
development of public health regulatory policy for
the use of drugs in food-producing animals.
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What is
CDC's Emerging Infections Program?
In the early 1990's, the National Academy of Science's
Institute of Medicine published a report which emphasized
the ongoing threat of emerging infectious diseases,
and CDC developed a strategy to respond to this threat.
A central feature of this strategy was the establishment
of the Emerging
Infections Program (EIP) in 7 sites across the
United States. The goals of the EIP network are to
improve national surveillance for new and emerging
infectious diseases, conduct applied epidemiologic
and laboratory research, develop prevention and control
measures, and strengthen the national public health
infastructure.
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