European Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance Network (EARS-Net)

EARS-Net (European Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance Network) is a European network of national surveillance systems that maintains a comprehensive surveillance and information system with European reference data on antimicrobial resistance for public health purposes.

Antimicrobial resistance in Europe is monitored by a network of national surveillance systems in European countries. The national networks systematically collect data from clinical laboratories in their countries and upload it to a central database maintained at ECDC (The European Surveillance System - TESSy). After uploading, each country approves its own data, and the results are made available from the ECDC website.

To maintain and facilitate the data reporting, ECDC ensures:

• validation of data from antimicrobial susceptibility tests of seven important bacterial pathogens isolated from patients with invasive infections;
• analysis of trends in the occurrence of antimicrobial resistance over time and between different countries and regions;
• EQA and protocols on testing methods to improve the consistency and quality of the data.

EARS-Net performs surveillance of antimicrobial susceptibility of seven bacterial pathogens commonly causing infections in humans:

• Streptococcus pneumoniae
• Staphylococcus aureus
• Enterococcus faecalis
• Enterococcus faecium
• Escherichia coli
• Klebsiella pneumonia
• Pseudomonas auruginosa

Link to European IC/HH Core Competencies: Area 3. Surveillance and investigation of healthcare-associated infection (HAI)

References:

http://ecdc.europa.eu/en/activities/surveillance/EARS-Net/Pages/index.aspx