Multinational project vs. Viet Nam antibiotic crisis

The increasingly widespread resistance to antibiotics is a global threat. One of the most vulnerable countries is Viet Nam, with 90 million inhabitants. In an attempt to change this development, the VINARES project was started in the autumn of 2012 led by researchers from Sweden, UK and Vietnam.

The first results of the project are now being presented in the scientific journal PLOS Medicine, with H?kan Hanberger, professor of infectious diseases at Link?ping University in Sweden, as chief author.

The aim of VINARES, the Viet Nam Resistance Project, is to strengthen national evidence-based control of antibiotic use in the country. The project is being run by researchers at Oxford University Clinical Research Unit in Hanoi and Link?ping University, in close collaboration with 16 of the country’s larger hospitals, the Vietnamese Association for Infectious Diseases, and the Vietnamese Health Ministry.  

The aim is to bridge the gap between policy and execution, which is the major problem in Vietnam and in many other low- and middle-income countries. Despite the ambitions of the political leadership, healthcare is characterised by insufficient infection control, insufficient resources for diagnosis, and inappropriate antibiotic treatment – all major factors driving the development of resistance.

Overcrowding in hospitals is a common problem in Viet Nam and a risk factor for the development of resistance. Pictured is Dr Cap at the hospital NHTD in Hanoi, one of the 16 participating hospitals in the project (Photo: H?kan Hanberger)

The project got off the ground in September 2012 when directors, clinicians, infection control doctors, microbiologists and pharmacists from the participating hospitals met in Viet Nam. This resulted in a division into three sub-projects:

Infection control and hospital-acquired infections As the development of new drugs has almost come to a halt, it has become even more important to prevent the spread of infections. But infection control is poor, above all in the intensive care wards, where over one in four patients are affected by hospital-acquired infections.

Antibiotic consumption By means of a database the control of prescribed antibiotics should be improved, a task which will be coordiAdidas