Surveillance of Antimicrobial Resistance in Neisseria Gonorrhoeae

 The UW Neisseria Reference Laboratory (UW NRL) served as one of the five Gonococcal Isolate Surveillance Project (GISP) regional laboratories from 1986 to 2016, and it is the only academic GISP laboratory successfully funded to participate in the new CDC’s Antibiotic Resistance Laboratory Network (ARLN). The UW NRL has a subcontract from the Washington State Department of Health/ Public Health Laboratory to continue monitoring trends in antimicrobial susceptibilities of isolates of Neisseria gonorrhoeae across the United States, and to provide evidence needed for rational selection of effective antibiotics for gonorrhea treatment. UW NRL is also the designated laboratory in King County for the CDC’s new effort to enhance gonococcal antimicrobial resistance surveillance, Strengthening U.S. Response to Resistant Gonorrhea (SURRG). Recently, CDC extended UW NRL’s funding as the Seattle SURRG Laboratory and the new Washington State Antimicrobial-Resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae (AR-GC) Center of Excellence.