About the AURA Surveillance System

The AURA Surveillance System is coordinated by the Department of Health and Aged Care. It was  established by the Commission in 2014, with funding provided by the Department. AURA data inform and support implementation of strategies to prevent and contain antimicrobial resistance.

Four long-term surveillance programs provided the foundation for the establishment of AURA Surveillance System:

• Australian Group on Antimicrobial Resistance
• National Antimicrobial Prescribing Survey
• National Antimicrobial Utilisation Surveillance Program
• The Queensland Health OrgTRx System, which provides the IT infrastructure for the Australian Passive AMR Surveillance (APAS) system.

In addition, analyses of data have been included in national reporting from:

• The National Alert System for Critical Antimicrobial Resistances (CARAlert), which was established by the Commission in 2016 to provide information on priority organisms that are resistant to last-line antimicrobials
• The National Neisseria Network, on Neisseria gonorrhoeae and N. meningitidis
• The National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System, on Mycobacterium tuberculosis
• The Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) and Repatriation Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (RPBS)
• The MedicineInsight program
• Sullivan Nicolaides Pathology, on rates of antimicrobial resistance from the community and private hospital settings
• HOTspots on rates of antimicrobial resistance from across northern Australia
• The C. difficile Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance (CDARS) study.

Organisms included in the AURA Surveillance System have been drawn from the Priority Organisms List. The Commission worked with a range of clinical and technical experts, and the states and territories, to identify these organisms which are considered to be a priority for surveillance of antimicrobial resistance in Australia.