ESAC-Net Reporting Protocol 2023
Reporting protocol for submitting data on antimicrobial consumption to ECDC, through the European Antimicrobial Consumption Surveillance Network (ESAC-Net).
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What surveillance data are collected?
ECDC produces comparable surveillance data on antimicrobial consumption in the community and in the hospital sector in EU and EEA countries. The data sources are national sales and reimbursement data, including information from national drug registers.
The WHO Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) classification system are used for the allocation of antimicrobials into groups.
Data on antimicrobial consumption are collected at the product level and the antimicrobials under surveillance are:
- Antibacterials for systemic use (ATC group J01);
- Antimycotics for systemic use (ATC group J02 and D01BA);
- Antimycobacterials (ATC group J04);
- Antivirals for systemic use (ATC group J05)
- Intestinal antibiotics (A07AA)
- Nitroimidazole derivatives used as antiprotozoals (ATC group P01AB)
How are data collected, processed and expressed?
Antimicrobial consumption in Europe is monitored by a network of national surveillance networks in the EU and EEA countries through annual data calls.
The national networks upload the data to a central database (The European Surveillance System - TESSy) maintained at ECDC. After uploading, each country approves its own data and the results are released annually on the ECDC website for European Antibiotic Awareness Day on 18 November.
Antimicrobial consumption data from EU and EEA countries are expressed as a number of WHO Defined Daily Doses (DDD) per 1,000 inhabitants and per day.
For the denominator, population data from EUROSTAT, or from national statistic reports, are used. When consumption data do not cover the whole population, countries provide data on the population covered by antimicrobial consumption surveillance data.
To maintain and facilitate data reporting, ECDC ensures:
- Validation of community and hospital sector data, including data from the national drug registers derived from national surveillance networks;
- Analysis of the trends in antimicrobial consumption overall and in the different ATC groups, as well as comparisons between countries and regions;
- Public access to information on antimicrobial consumption in Europe through an ESAC-Net interactive database.
