How to use AbxGuide
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Using the online version
The ISAC Antibiotic Guide (AbxGuide) is an easy-to-use resource allowing you to find treatment solutions for specific pathogens by organ system or syndrome.
For each pathogen, evidence-based information is shown for preferred (primary) and alternative treatments, based on susceptibility/resistance and specific conditions, such as allergies.
Antibiotics are color-coded in accordance with the WHO Access-Watch-Reserve (AWaRe) classification, in an attempt to contribute to the global objective of achieving a country-level target of at least 60% of total antibiotic consumption being Access group antibiotics (The WHO 13th General Programme of Work 2019–2023).
Important information and comments are given to further clarify the choice or provide additional guidance for specific cases. For succinctness, some commonly used terms are presented as abbreviations. The full list can be found here.
Special notes on the AbxGuide
Currently, the guide only provides guidance for the treatment of adult patients.
The guide is mainly intended for in-patient care, and most commonly, the route of administration of the primary choice of treatment is intravenous, intramuscular, or intrathecal. For the oral route, when possible, the least frequent administration is recommended, taking into consideration healthcare staff time and the need to reduce the healthcare system burden.
The guide does not provide guidance or instructions for diagnostics.
While minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) is important, especially in the treatment of meningitis, these values are generally not provided as they are often laboratory-specific.
How to search the online guide
From the homepage, you can search by typing one or more keywords into the search input box on the left side.
For advanced search, choose the organ system of interest, which directs you to a new page where you can select the syndrome and pathogen of interest and filter by other parameters, such as susceptibility and type of antibiotic.
Using the guide offline or on a local host
A PDF file with your results can be downloaded for each syndrome or pathogen. If you would like to adapt the guide to your local settings or language, please refer to the Join and contribute page.
AWaRe
The WHO AWaRe (Access, Watch, Reserve) antibiotic book gives guidance on first- and second-choice antibiotics for common infections in line with the recommendations in the Essential Medicines Lists for adults and children (EML and EMLc). WHO has classified antibiotics into four groups, Access, Watch, Reserve (AWaRe) and a fourth – Not Recommended – group. As well as the antibiotics in the EML and EMLc, more than 200 other antibiotics have now been classified into AWaRe groups to help inform local and national policy development and implementation.
Watch antibiotics are broader-spectrum antibiotics, generally with higher costs and are recommended only as first-choice options for patients with more severe clinical presentations or for infections where the causative pathogens are more likely to be resistant to Access antibiotics, such as upper urinary tract infections (UTIs).
Reserve antibiotics are last-choice antibiotics used to treat multidrug-resistant infections (see chapter on Reserve antibiotics).
AbxGuide is easy-to-use open access online database compiling evidence on pathogen-directed antibiotic treatment covering over major pathogens affecting different organs and tissues. More...