Focus: Antibiotic resistance

Duration: October 2014 – September 2017

Geographical area: Finland, Germany, Latvia, Norway, Poland, Russia, Sweden 

Summary: The goal of the project was to provide health-care professionals, authorities and policy makers with valuable information on the penetration of antibiotic resistance in society and identified specific resistance determinants among the normal flora of healthy individuals.

The primary aim of the NoDARS project was to gain new knowledge regarding resistance levels in uncomplicated urinary tract infections (UTI) that normally are not subjected to microbiological analysis; to look for specific resistance determinants in the normal flora of healthy individuals and use these results to assess and improve existing guidelines for antibiotic treatment of uncomplicated UTIs as well as to evaluate existing AMR-strategies in the countries that participated in the study. Altogether the results of the study will be informing the empirical treatment of common urinary tract infections. It also brought important information on the penetration of resistance in the population. Different AMR-strategies applied in the participating countries were evaluated in the context of evidence informed policy making.

The project provided new useful information on the levels of antibiotic resistance in the countries participating in the project (Finland, Germany, Latvia, Poland, Russia, Sweden). NoDARS provided large and unique collections of E.coli isolates from uncomplicated UTIs that gives new insight into the resistance in one of the most under-sampled but at the same time common infections worldwide. The study shows that resistance patterns vary significantly among the partner countries. The NoDARS data also represents populations that are not normally included in surveillance of AMR, which contributes to raising the impact and interest in these groups. A major strength of the NoDARS project was the involvement of countries with different antimicrobial resistance situations, health care system organization and antimicrobial stewardship policies. Especially the perspective of Russia is important and often lacking in similar studies.

 

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