The European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (EUCAST) plays an important role in defining breakpoints for existing and new agents. These predict the outcome of therapy of infections caused by bacteria and fungi. EUCAST is jointly organised by ESCMID, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the European National Breakpoint Committees. During the last 25 years, the committee succeeded in harmonising clinical breakpoints and antimicrobial susceptibility testing methods in Europe. Guidance from EUCAST is now used in all of Europe and in many countries outside.
EUCAST began its journey with the goal of harmonising European clinical breakpoints and now leads major AMR change with its disk diffusion test for routine antimicrobial susceptibility testing. ESCMID is proud to oversee its development and upkeep in the coming years.
CAESAR is a network of national AMR surveillance systems including all countries in the WHO European Region that are not part of the European Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance Network (EARS-Net). ESCMID is proud to collaborate with WHO CAESAR and will continue to assist with development and upkeep in the future.