Antimicrobial stewardship.

The aim of antimicrobial management or stewardship programmes is to ensure proper use of antimicrobial agents in order to provide the best treatment outcomes, to lessen the risk of adverse effects (including antimicrobial resistance), and to promote cost-effectiveness. Increasingly, long-term sustainability is found to be the major focus of antimicrobial stewardship. Implementing structural measures in healthcare institutions is therefore a major, but not the sole, focus of attention in promoting prudent use of antibiotics. The problem of antimicrobial resistance requires common strategies at all levels--for the prescribers and at ward, departmental, hospital, national and international levels.