Antimicrobial resistance in Vietnam

Heiman Wertheim and Arjun Chandna from Oxford University and colleagues describe the launch and impact of VINARES, an initiative to strengthen antimicrobial stewardship in Viet Nam, which may be instructive for other countries struggling to address the threat of antimicrobial resistance.

Antimicrobial resistance is increasingly recognised as a serious contemporary global health threat (with numerous calls for action from the international community), but while interventions to control antimicrobial resistance are available, implementation is developing countries (where the threat is greatest) is challenging.

The authors describe the challenges faced in Viet Nam and how they launched and have measured the impact of VINARES, which is intended to galvanize political and medical leadership including national and local stakeholders and to provide "the impetus and infrastructure for self-sufficient infection surveillance and antimicrobial stewardship in Vietnam for the long-term."