Overview
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is an urgent global threat that impacts people, animals, plants, and their shared environment and is a leading cause of death worldwide. CDC and its partners are leading the fight, building and expanding infrastructure and capacities needed worldwide to identify, prevent, contain, and respond to resistant pathogens and other emerging infectious disease threats through the Global Antimicrobial Resistance Laboratory and Response Network.
In December 2021, CDC established the Global Antimicrobial Resistance Laboratory and Response Network—a broad-reaching, One Health approach to improve the detection of antimicrobial-resistant threats and prevent their spread globally. The Global Antimicrobial Resistance Laboratory and Response Network spans nearly 50 countries and works with more than 20 organizations worldwide to build laboratory capacity that detects antimicrobial-resistant pathogens; prevents infections in health care and the community through proven infection control practices; and applies new and innovative ways to respond to AMR threats.
The Global Antimicrobial Resistance Laboratory and Response Network builds on CDC’s successful domestic Antimicrobial Resistance Laboratory Network, established in 2016, by addressing critical detection and response gaps globally—including to support outbreak response when threats are reported.
Together, these initiatives form a collaborative network of dedicated partners helping CDC transform how the world addresses AMR threats across One Health.
Learning Objectives
- How partners in the Global Antimicrobial Resistance Laboratory and Response Network are strengthening global platforms to address AMR threats and meet critical detection and response needs across multiple settings.
- How CDC’s global efforts identify risk factors driving the emergence and spread of AMR threats across One Health and respond to threats on the ground, including those found in health care, the community, food, animals, and the environment (e.g., water and soil).
- How the Global Antimicrobial Resistance Laboratory and Response Network reaches many settings impacted by many types of infections—such as healthcare-associated infections and sexually transmitted infections—and many types of pathogens, including fungal, enteric, and invasive bacterial and respiratory pathogens.
Our Panel Of Experts
Dawn Sievert, PhD (Moderator)
Senior Science Advisor, Antimicrobial Resistance Coordination and Strategy Unit
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Arnaldo Colombo, MD
Professor of Medicine
Federal University of São Paulo
Fernanda Lessa, MD, MPH
Chief, International Infection Control Program
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Kristy Kubota, MPH
Manager, PulseNet
Association of Public Health Laboratories
Shu-Hua Wang, MD, MPHTM, PharmD, FIDSA
Infectious Disease Physician-Scientist and Professor of Medicine
The Ohio State University
Dawn Sievert, PhD
Dawn Sievert, PhD, is a Senior Science Advisor of CDC’s Antimicrobial Resistance Coordination and Strategy Unit, leading the strategic scientific direction, coordination, and investments of CDC’s cross-cutting scientific antimicrobial resistance activities globally. She provides the scientific leadership for CDC’s Global Antimicrobial Resistance Laboratory and Response Network, the domestic Antimicrobial Resistance Laboratory Network, and the CDC and Food and Drug Administration’s Antimicrobial Resistance Isolate Bank.
Dr. Sievert is also the Lead of the CDC Collaborating Center within the World Health Organization’s Antimicrobial Resistance Network.
Arnaldo Colombo, MD
Arnaldo Colombo, MD, is a Professor of Medicine at Federal University of São Paulo, Senior Advisor for the Global Action Fund for Fungal Infections, President-elect of the International Society of Human and Animal Mycology, Fellow of the European Confederation of Medical Mycology, and a permanent member of the Brazilian Academy of Science.
Dr. Colombo has organized several multicenter surveillance studies to characterize the epidemiology and clinical aspects of Candida and Aspergillus species and Trichosporon invasive infections, as well as to investigate the prevalence rates and molecular mechanisms related to antimicrobial resistance in fungi.
Kristy Kubota, MPH
Kristy Kubota, MPH, is the Manager of the PulseNet program for the Association of Public Health Laboratories, where she has worked since 2008.
Kubota began her career in public health as an Emerging Infectious Disease fellow at CDC in Atlanta, Georgia. She later transferred to the Enteric Diseases Laboratory Branch, at CDC’s Division of Foodborne, Waterborne, and Environmental Diseases, to join the PulseNet Methods and Validation Laboratory. Later, she worked in the Division of Vector-borne Infectious Diseases Branch in Fort Collins, Colorado, to work on PulseNet methods for Francisella tularensis and Yersinia pestis.
Fernanda Lessa, MD, MPH
Fernanda Lessa, MD, MPH, is the Chief for the International Infection Control Program in the Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion in CDC’s National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases.
Dr. Lessa has more than 15 years of experience in healthcare epidemiology and infection prevention and control. Her international experience includes working in Latin America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. She has led several initiatives and programs within CDC, including the revisions of healthcare-associated infections’ definitions for neonatal intensive care unit patients. Other initiatives include population-based surveillance systems for Clostridioides difficile and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and leading a global pneumonia program.
Shu-Hua Wang, MD, MPHTM, PharmD, FIDSA
Shu-Hua Wang, MD, MPHTM, PharmD, FIDSA, is an Infectious Disease Physician-Scientist and a Professor of Medicine at The Ohio State University (OSU) in Columbus, Ohio, and the Director of Research and Implementation Science for OSU’s Global One Health initiative. Her clinical research interests are tuberculosis and antimicrobial resistance to improve human, animal, and environmental health through One Health.
Dr. Wang has experience in public health and academics, including international research experience in Asia, Africa, Central and South America, and the United States.