920 - Use of the Web by State and Territorial Health Departments to Promote the Dissemination of State Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance Data, United States

Background: Antimicrobial resistant (AMR) bacteria pose a serious threat to public health. The national response to this threat includes calls for promoting judicious use of antibiotics in humans and animals and strengthening integrated One Health surveillance of AMR bacteria in humans, animals, and environment.  However, the extent to which public health jurisdictions are disseminating surveillance findings to promote judicious use of antimicrobials is unclear.

Methods: We used a standardized web audit tool to manually review and document the presence of AMR-related information on the websites of all public health jurisdictions that participate in national notifiable disease surveillance in the United States. We also emailed a survey to representatives in the 54 jurisdictions that participate in the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS) activities coordinated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The survey asked questions about AMR-related information on their public health department website.

Results: Of the 37 (68.5%) jurisdictions that responded to the email survey, 26 (70.3%) indicated that their websites have information on appropriate antibiotic use for health professionals, veterinarians and general public, compared to 89.3% from the web survey (Figure). Eleven (29.7%) indicated that they have data on antimicrobial susceptibility for pathogens, or antibiograms, on their websites, compared to 48.2% from the web survey. While 11 (29.7%) jurisdictions indicated that they have highlighted appropriate antimicrobial use on the homepage, the web survey found no reference on the homepage.Comparison of results from email and web survey on public health jurisdictions' website, United States - 2020


Conclusion: Public health jurisdictions have begun to use websites to increase awareness about the threat of antimicrobial resistance. However, the limited presence of information on appropriate antimicrobial use for the public, health professionals and veterinarians suggest the need for improvement. Gaps exist between the awareness of the epidemiologists and laboratorians and the information reported on public health jurisdictions’ websites. Websites can be expanded and better leveraged to increase visibility of AMR and appropriate antimicrobial prescribing across One Health domains.