National Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance

The tiny island state of Timor Leste is a mere dot on the world map. As one of the least developed nations in the world, it suffers a high burden of infectious disease. An ongoing challenge has been to effectively reach its 1.17 million population, most of whom battle tuberculosis, acute respiratory infections, diarrhea, malaria and neonatal sepsis amongst under-five children.Limited research data on the occurrence of resistant organisms in the nation have made it hard to estimate the exact antimicrobial resistance (AMR) scenario. In the absence of AMR surveillance efforts, a recent MEDLINE indexed publication that studied resistance profile of bacterial isolates from a Timorese sample, pointed towards the presence of resistant organisms.