Acquired azole resistance is increasingly reported in Aspergillus fumigatus, and has now been described in Europe, Middle East, Asia, Australia and the America’s. It is generally recognised that systematic surveillance is required, advocated by both ECDC and recently in a UK report on antimicrobial resistance. Furthermore, new azole resistance mutations continue to emerge in the environment.
Experts recommend performing local surveillance in order to determine the presence of azole resistance and adjust treatment guidelines if necessary. However, azole resistance testing is not performed in many laboratories and as a consequence in many regions resistance frequency data are lacking. Furthermore, there is significant variation in the resistance frequencies that are reported, which might be due to methodological differences.
An important aim of the working group is to set up a network of centres that collect resistance data in Aspergillus systematically and according to the same protocol. In 2016 we prepared a call and invited centres to participate in this group. In addition we aim to facilitate centres in setting up MIC-testing in their centre and if required molecular identification of resistance mutations.