Fleming Fund
The National Hospital for Tropical Diseases established this National Reference Lab for AMR in 2018, thanks to the financial support from the Flemming Fund and the technical and administrative support from OUCRU Ha Noi.
This reference lab is a training and knowledge centre, in which confirmatory testing, molecular detection of resistance mechanisms, and whole genome sequencing are carried out on isolates of interest from the surveillance sites (eg, all blood and cerebrospinal fluid isolates, Salmonella spp and Shigella spp isolates from stool, and Gram-negative organisms from patients with ventilator-associated pneumonia).
Passive isolate-based surveillance is done with WHONET, active and passive (case-based) surveillance of the results of antibiotic-susceptibility testing are based on the WHO Global Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance System (GLASS) and Fleming Fund guidelines.
The investigators work together with the Ministry of Health, WHO, and Global Health Security funded partners (US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and PATH) to support this network.
This laboratory is one of three National Reference Labs for AMR in Vietnam. This project is the first step in a substantial programme of support to countries bearing the heaviest burden of AMR infections.
Lessons learned will be shared in regional meetings, engaging government and foreign development partners in Laos and Cambodia, and support Vietnam’s National action plan for combating drug resistance (2013).
