The Australian Gonococcal Surveillance Programme 1979–2017

Abstract

Neisseria gonorrhoeae (NG) is an important human bacterial pathogen responsible for more than 78million infections per annum globally1. In Australia and elsewhere, NG infection rates are increasing and, critically, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in NG poses a substantial threat to health security2. In response, the Australian Gonococcal Surveillance Programme (AGSP) was established in 1979, and has steadfastly evolved since that time to meet the challenges of continuously emerging AMR (Figure 1).