IMPACT OF ANTIMICROBIAL STEWARDSHIP PROGRAMMES ONBACTERIAL RESISTANCE LEVEL IN THE UAE: A SYSTEMATICREVIEW

Antimicrobial resistance is a global problem that needs to be addressed immediately due to its huge clinical and economic burden ((WHO, 2021a). The death toll associated with antimicrobial resistance approached 5 million cases in 2019 while total cost that can impact the whole society is around £10 billion each year (Antimicrobial Resistance Collaborators, 2022: Smith and Coast, 2012). Eventually, this has motivated the World Health Organization (WHO) to set a global action plan to counteract the antimicrobial resistance all-over the world as a priority issue (WHO, 2015). In 2015, the United Nations (UN) released the updated Sustainability Development Goals (SDG) that is aiming to improve the public health and general well-being of the globe through tackling 17 topics. Treatment and prevention for multiple common infections such as Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), malaria, tuberculosis and others were among the main targets in its agenda (UN, 2019). In UAE, although several initiatives have been adopted such as launching antimicrobial stewardship programmes and surveillance programmes, antimicrobial resistance is still an unresolved issue (National sub-committee for AMR surveillance, 2021 UAE Higher Committee for Antimicrobial Resistance, 2019). The resistance of Acinetobacter species to several cephalosporins and penicillins exceeded 20% (National sub-committee for AMR surveillance, 2021). Current evidence available publicly does not include a systematic review that is evaluating the effect of antimicrobial stewardship programmes on bacterial resistance level in UAE. With the scarcity of data and complexity of the issue, it is important to conduct this systematic review to assess the impact of these programmes on bacterial resistance level and identify gaps and challenges in the implementation.