Establish a global One Health Resistance surveillance program that enables monitoring of resistance trends in Aspergillus in the clinical, veterinary and environmental domains and to develop and standardize tools that enable systematic surveillance.
A JPIAMR network grant INFORM-AFR was obtained by the ISHAM working group aiming to set up an international One Health resistance surveillance network in fungi. The network involves 13 countries (who were listed as contributing countries in the JPIAMR call), mainly from Europe. We set up a board of 4 investigators (A. Alanio, A. Alastruey, L. White and P. Verweij) and an executive committee including representatives from various backgrounds (environmental health, agriculture, EUCAST, mycology reference centers) and relevant public health organizations (CDC, ECDC and WHO). An Executive Committee meeting was held in January 2023 and recently a survey has been started to collect information regarding existing resistance surveillance programs and collaborations with public health institutes in 13 countries.
Two additional JPIAMR grants were awarded to ISHAM WG members in 2023: GAP-ASP (coordinator E. Snelders) and IMPROVE-ASP (coordinator P. Verweij), which investigate various aspects of environmental surveillance of A. fumigatus (standardization of methods) and improving resistance diagnosis in A. fumigatus.
A grant investigating how successful interventions in antibacterial resistance can be applied to fungal resistance (ABR2AFR) was submitted in 2023 which received positive reviews and we are awaiting the funding decision. The proposal aims to organize an international meeting to set up a roadmap to address antifungal resistance. The ISHAM/ECMM WG will invite various stakeholders including researchers, clinicians, policy makers, fungicide producers and users and pharmaceutical companies. This meeting will be combined with INFORM-AFR stakeholder meeting if awarded. The meeting is scheduled for Q1 2025.
For this we applied and received an ISHAM grant in 2022 and have submitted a second grant to involve more ISHAM members and connect with relevant surveillance programs outside North America and Europe (such as Latin America). Participation of international ISHAM members is critical to roadmap design and support.
No events planned.
No publications were submitted in 2023.
We received 10,000 CHF for the WG network development. We aim to use additional funds to connect with non-European initiatives and invite these stakeholders to our Q1 2025 meeting.