ACRONYM "ARPAC" stands for Antibiotic Resistance: Prevention And Control.

THE FULL TITLE of the project is "Development of Strategies for Control and Prevention of Antibiotic Resistance in European Hospitals.

FUNDING ARPAC is a Concerted Action project which is funded by the European Commission under the Quality of Life thematic programme of the 5th Framework for Research and Development (DG XII) . It runs from 1st January 2002 to 31st December 2004. The project number is QLK2-CT-2001-00915

OBJECTIVE & AIMS The objective of the project is "to lay the foundations for a better understanding of emergence and epidemiology of antibiotic resistance in human pathogens and to harmonise strategies for prevention and control of antibiotic resistant pathogens in European hospitals"

The aims of the project are:-
*To identify antibiotic policies and prescription patterns associated with lower resistance rates
* To identify infection control policies associated with low incidence rates of "Alert organisms" ie. transmissible antibiotic-resistant strains.

Ultimately, ARPAC will make recommendations on which specific measures, such as antibiotic policies and infection control policies, lead to low rates of antibiotic resistance. Once these have been made they will be discussed during a broad-based international consensus conference and selected strategies will form the basis for future intervention studies.

All of the assimilated data will be modelled by a medical statistician and a) antibiotic policies associated with lower resistance rates and b) infection control policies associated with low incidence rates of transmissible antibiotic resistant bacterial pathogens will be identified.

BACKGROUND The project is being run by four study groups belonging to the European Society of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ESCMID). Individual study groups will be responsible for specific areas of the project and are represented on the project steering committee. The study groups are:-

The European Study Group on Antibiotic Resistance Surveillance (ESGARS).

The European Study Group on Antibiotic Policies (ESGAP).

The European Study Group on Nosocomial Infections (ESGNI).

The European Study Group on Epidemiological Markers (ESGEM).