The state of antibiotic resistance surveillance: an overview of existing activities and new strategies.

The growing global problem of antibiotic resistance requires a worldwide surveillance strategy to characterize the magnitude of the problem, guide clinical care decisions, and assess the impact of prevention and control interventions. Because many existing antibiotic resistance surveillance activities have developed independently of one another and vary greatly in their focus, key organizations are promoting strategies to standardize surveillance activities and build collaboration to promote effective global surveillance. With medical facilities operating throughout the world to support a highly mobile beneficiary population, the Department of Defense's Military Health System could benefit from partnership with civilian efforts to achieve global antibiotic resistance surveillance. This article's overview of existing surveillance activities and new strategies provides information requisite to the Department of Defense undertaking of development of a worldwide antibiotic resistance surveillance program to complement and integrate with civilian programs.