Australian Group on Antimicrobial Resistance (AGAR) Australian Gram-negative Sepsis Outcome Programme (GNSOP) Annual Report 2019.

The Australian Group on Antimicrobial Resistance (AGAR) performs regular period-prevalence studies to monitor changes in antimicrobial resistance in selected enteric gram-negative pathogens. The 2018 survey was the sixth year to focus on bloodstream infections, and included Enterobacterales, and species. Eight thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven isolates, comprising Enterobacterales (7,983; 90.1%), (764; 8.6%) and species (110; 1.2%), were tested using commercial automated methods. The results were analysed using Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) and European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (EUCAST) breakpoints (January 2020). Of the key resistances, resistance to the third-generation cephalosporin ceftriaxone was found in 13.3%/13.3% (CLSI/EUCAST criteria) of and 8.4%/8.4% of . Resistance rates to ciprofloxacin were 16.0%/16.0% for , 10.2%/10.2% for complex, 5.9%/5.9% for complex, and 4.1%/9.3% for . Resistance rates to piperacillin-tazobactam were 3.2%/5.7%, 4.7%/8.5%, 14.8%/21.4%, and 6.9%/12.5% for the same four species/complex respectively. Twenty-nine isolates from 29 patients were shown to harbour a carbapenemase gene: 15 , five , four (one with also), three , one , and one .