WHO Collaborating Centres for AMR: A rapidly growing group!

Dear All,

I recently learned about the designation of Stanford as a WHO Collaborating Centre (WHOCC) for AMR and Stewardship. This caused me to dig a bit more into the way that WHO has created a global network of Collaborating Centres.

WHOCC designation represents a sustained and productive collaboration with WHO (link). As an example, Stanford’s WHOCC designation is based substantially on their work to create two online courses on stewardship (see here and here). 

With > 800 WHOCCs in 80 countries covering a wide range of health-related topics, this is a substantial body of work! Relevant to this newsletter and pretty obviously as part of WHO’s focus in recent years on AMR, there are now 16 WHOCCs with the word “antimicrobial” or “AMR” in their titles (link).

Of these, 3 were created prior to 2000 with the other 13 created since 2014! Here’s the list (note that I have abbreviated full titles to use AMR instead of Antimicrobial Resistance):

WHOCC for / on; Since; Where

• Reference & Research on AMR and Healthcare-Associated Infections; Jan-62; Public Health England (London, UK, link)
• International Monitoring of Resistance to Antimicrobial Agents; May-97; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, Atlanta, USA, link)
• Sexually Transmitted Infections and AMR; May-98; The Prince of Wales Hospital (Randwick, Australia, link)
• AMR Surveillance and Training; Jun-14; Ministry of Public Health, National Institute of Health (Nonthaburi, Thailand, link)
• AMR Epidemiology and Surveillance; Oct-14; National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM, Bilthoven, Netherlands, link)
• Capacity Building on AMR Surveillance and Research; Apr-16; Smolensk State Medical University (Smolensk, Russian Federation, link)
• AMR containment; Apr-16; Public Health Agency of Sweden (Solna, Sweden, link)
• AMR Prevention and Containment; Nov-16; Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University (Bangkok, Thailand, link)
• WHO AMR Surveillance and Quality Assessment Collaborating Centres Network; Dec-16; WHO GLASS Secretariat (link)
• Antimicrobial Resistance; Jun-17; AMR Laboratory, Centre for Opportunistic, Tropical and Hospital Infections (Johannesburg, South Africa, link)
• Surveillance of AMR; Jun-17; Brigham & Women’s Hospital (Boston, USA, link)
• AMR in Foodborne and Environmental Bacteria; Dec-18; Servicio Nacional de Sanidad. Inocuidad y Calidad Agroalimentaria (SENASICA, Ciudad de Mexico, Mexico, link)
• AMR and Stewardship; Apr-19; Stanford University School of Medicine (Stanford, USA, link)
• AMR and Foodborne Pathogens and Genomics; Apr-19; Technical University of Denmark (Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark, link)
• Global One Health and AMR Initiatives; Nov-19; North Carolina State University (Raleigh, USA, link)
• Global Governance of AMR; Nov-19; York University (Toronto, Canada, link)

But wait … there’s more! These are just the WHOCCs with AMR in their title! A search for “Infectious Disease” turns up another 11 WHOCCs (link), a search for “infection” finds 13 more, and the home page for WHO’s GLASS project (Global Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance System, link) lists 20 WHOCCs. There’s a bit of overlap in each of these with the AMR-titled group, but not a lot. 

This is impressive! It takes sustained effort to build this kind of momentum … WHO made AMR the focus of its annual World Health Day event in 2011 (link) and you can tell that the team has definitely been busy both before and since. 

Depending on your work and geography, you might want to consider connecting with a relevant WHOCC. For each AMR-titled WHOCC, I’ve shown the  most current and relevant link I could find. Further contact details are also found in the WHOCC database (link). To find other WHOCCs, search the entire database here … it’s really easy to filter by country. 

All best wishes, –jr

John H. Rex, MD | Chief Medical Officer, F2G Ltd. | Expert-in-Residence, Wellcome Trust. Follow me on Twitter: @JohnRex_NewAbx. See past newsletters and subscribe for the future: https://amr.solutions/blog/

Upcoming meetings of interest to the AMR community:

• 16-18 Dec 2019 (Bangkok, Thailand): 3rd International Symposium on Alternatives to Antibiotics in Animal Production. Go here for details: https://www.ars.usda.gov/alternativestoantibiotics/
• 16 Jan 2020 (Washington, DC): Duke-Margolis meeting entitled (approximately) “improving Payment Policies for Antibiotics.” This meeting will run 10:30am – 4:30pm ET. Go here to register.
• 20 Feb 2020 (London, UK): Westminster Health Forum conference entitled “Antimicrobial resistance – coordinating a global response and progress on the UK strategy.” Go here for details.
• 26-27 Feb 2020 (Washington, DC): US PACCARB public meeting. Go here for details.
• 1-6 Mar 2020 (Il Ciocco, Tuscany, Italy): Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on Antibacterial Discovery and Development: “Now is the time to re-boot antibiotic R&D before it’s too little, too late.” Go here for details.
• 12-13 Mar 2020 (Basel): BEAM-, Novo REPAIR-, CARB-X-, DZIF-, ND4BB-, ENABLE-supported (among a long list!) Conference on Novel Antimicrobials and AMR Diagnostics. Details are here, poster deadline is 12 Dec 2019.  
• 16-17 Mar 2020 (London): BSAC Spring Conference entitled: “Bridging the gap between science, policy and effective antimicrobial use.” Go here for details. 
• 18-21 Apr 2020 (Paris): Annual ECCMID meeting (#30)
• 25-30 May 2020 (Rotterdam), Annual ESPID meeting (European Society for Pediatric ID, #38)
• 27-28 Jun 2020 (Bryant University, Rhode Island): Drug Resistance Gordon Research Seminar entitled “Mechanisms and Approaches to Overcoming Drug Resistance in Cancer, Infectious Disease and Agriculture” for graduate students and postdoctoral scientists. Go here for details … this immediately precedes the GRC listed just next
• 28 Jun-3 Jul 2020 (Bryant University, Rhode Island): Gordon Research Conference (GRC) entitled “Strategies to Disrupt Drug Resistance in Infectious Disease, Cancer and Agriculture.” Go here for details.
• 1-4 Sep 2020 (Dublin): Annual ASM-ESCMID Conference on Antibiotic Development #5! Mark your calendar now and go here for details.
• 9-10 Sep 2020 (Washington, DC): US PACCARB public meeting. Go here for details.
• 22-25 Sep 2020 (Albuquerque, New Mexico): Biannual meeting of the MSGERC (Mycoses Study Group Education and Research Consortium). Save-the-date announcement is here, details to follow.
• 17-25 Oct 2020 (Annecy, France): Interdisciplinary Course on Antibiotics and Resistance (ICARe). This is a soup-to-nuts residential course on antibiotics, antibiotic resistance, and antibiotic R&D. The course is very intense, very detailed, and gets rave reviews. The date is set for 2020 and the program will ultimately appear here. Registration is limited to 40 students and opens 15 Mar 2020.
• 10-13 Apr 2021 (Vienna): Annual ECCMID meeting (#31)