National Gonococcal Antimicrobial Susceptibility Comparison Program

The National Gonococcal Antimicrobial Susceptibility Comparison Program is sent to participating laboratories across Canada, and the Caribbean Epideimological Centre (CAREC) twice a year. Each panel consists of five strains of various antibiotic susceptibilities to penicillin, spectinomycin, tetracycline, erythromycin, ceftriaxone, ciprofloxacin, cefixime and azithromycin. Participating laboratories are to determine the minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) of the different antimicrobials used by their laboratory with either the two fold agar dilution method, or the E-Test method, for each panel strain along with a set of control strains. Inter-laboratory and intra-laboratory comparisons are made with submitted results.