What can PROTEKT tell us at a local level?

Abstract

Because of increasing antimicrobial resistance in bacterial pathogens causing community-acquired respiratory tract infections (CARTIs), surveillance at local, regional, national and international levels is necessary to provide information to guide empiric antimicrobial therapy. PROTEKT (Prospective Resistant Organism Tracking and Epidemiology for the Ketolide Telithromycin) is a longitudinal, global, multicenter surveillance study designed to monitor the worldwide development of antimicrobial resistance, and disseminate up-to-date information via the internet to assist in the choice of empiric therapy at the local level. In this paper, the results for the first year of PROTEKT are presented from a local perspective. In examples from Japan, USA and Europe, great variation was observed between antimicrobial susceptibility patterns for Streptococcus pneumoniae, Streptococcus pyogenes and Haemophilus influenzae in countries and cities in close proximity to each other. Telithromycin demonstrated excellent in vitro activity against all organisms and is a potential new candidate for the empiric therapy of CARTIs. The first year of PROTEKT has provided valuable information on the prevalence of antimicrobial resistance of bacterial agents causing CARTIs that can be used for guiding empiric therapy and policies. Variation in local resistance observed in this study further emphasizes the need for accurate up-to-date surveillance data at the local level.