Background Based upon the strategies of the WHO “Global action plan to control the spread and impact of antimicrobial resistance in Neisseria gonorrhoeae”,a plan was developed and implemented to align GASP related activities within the broader agenda of the Antimicrobial Resistance Latin-America Network. Spite of the achievements of GASP in the last decades, there was a need to increase the number of countries and institutions collaborating in N. gonorrhoeae susceptibility surveillance. In order to achieve this, a comprehensive plan to strengthen the capacity of the Latin-America National Reference Laboratories (NRL) to conduct AMR surveillance in a systematic and regular manner to ensure the early detection of resistant N. gonorroheae was implemented.

Methods After a number of communications and training activities with the NRL, N. gonorrhoeae susceptibility 2010 data were collected through a questionnaire sent to the National Reference Laboratories in Latin America. Data included country, number of isolated tested, and percentage of resistance to cefixime, ceftriaxone, ciprofloxacin, spectinomycin, penicillin, and tetracycline.

Results From 21 Latin American countries integrating the network, 8 (38%) provide data. None of them detected decreased susceptibility to ceftriaxone; resistance to ciproloxacine ranked from 0% to 83%; penicillin from 6 to 78%; no resistance to spectinomycin; resistance to tetracyline from 27 to 83%.

Conclusions

• The NRL demonstrated certain capacity and commitment to collect, analyse, and report data on N. gonorrhoeae susceptibility, however, this should be strengthned and expanded to more countries in the Region.

• Broad differences among countries were observed, specially on the susceptibility to ciprofloxacine and penicillin.

• Some challenges were identified, such the lack of a system for referral of specimens at national and regional level.

• This effort should be continued, emphasising the importance of periodicity on data collection, analysis and dissemination.