At the request of the Government, a WHO technical mission visited Pakistan from 23 to 28 November 2015 in order to map capacities for early implementation of a national antimicrobial resistance surveillance system. The mission team, comprising epidemiologists, laboratory scientists and their national counterparts, conducted site visits to hospitals and laboratories in Karachi and Lahore and visited the national Health Institute in Islamabad. They reviewed the capacities of selected centres for laboratory testing and reporting data to a national surveillance system with a view to including them in the early implementation of the surveillance system. Pakistan has already appointed a national antimicrobial resistance focal point. Following the site visits, heads of laboratories, epidemiological units and the mission team held a consultative meeting to develop a road map of actions for the early implementation of the system. 

Antimicrobial resistance poses a major challenge to the health sector in all countries. As a part of its response to this global problem, a global action plan on antimicrobial resistance was endorsed by the World Health Assembly in May 2015. One of the objectives of the global plan is for countries to strengthen the knowledge and evidence base, which includes monitoring resistance through the establishment of national antimicrobial resistance surveillance programmes. WHO will continue to support Pakistan in its efforts to implement and expand its antimicrobial surveillance system.  

WHO has also developed a manual for establishing a global antimicrobial resistance surveillance system developed using data from national surveillance systems. 

Global antimicrobial resistance surveillance system: manual for early implementation