How can we fight against antimicrobial-resistant bacteria in the World Health Organization Western Pacific Region?

The public health community is faced with the global challenge posed by antimicrobial-resistant bacteria, including meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and extended-spectrum b-lactamases (ESBLs)-producing enterobacteriaceae. The need to address this issue prompted the focus of World Health Day 2011, which was entitled “Antimicrobial resistance: no action today, no cure tomorrow.”In today’s world of international travel, the globalization of drug-resistant bacteria is a pressing issue for public health professionals. In the World Health Organization (WHO) Western Pacific Region, as well as other regions in the world, more and more new types of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria have come to the forefront. An important example is New Delhi Metallo-b-lactamase 1 (NDM-1)-carrying enterobacteriaceae, which attracted attention in Europe in 2010 as imported cases associated with health care contact in India and Bangladesh. Although some NDM-1 cases were reported from Australia and Japan,2 no outbreaks were reported in the Western Pacific Region.In this perspective article, we consider four focus areas for countries in the Western Pacific Region to consider when strategizing their response to antimicrobial resistant bacteria.