EQAsia

Strengthening bacteriology diagnostics for AMR surveillance

The UK International Development Fleming Fund Regional Grant EQAsia was dedicated to improving bacterial diagnostics to combat antimicrobial resistance (AMR) through the provision of External Quality Assessments (EQAs) and technical support to National Reference Laboratories and Centres of Excellence in low- and middle-income countries across Asia. 

Project Activities 

External Quality Assessments (EQAs) 

EQAsia provided an EQA scheme with tailored training targeting quality management systems (QMS) and laboratory diagnostics. The EQAs were free of charge for participating laboratories and supported EQAsia’s One Health approach by including laboratories from human, animal, and environmental health sectors. Additionally, the EQAsia architecture offered various capacity strengthening efforts, including a wide range of training activities, individual consultation and site visits for laboratories that experienced diagnostic challenges, and a pilot project supporting national provision of EQAs.

See our page on EQAs for more information and the EQA Summary Reports and Matrix EQA Reports. 

Pilot National EQA Provision 

From 2022 – 2025, EQAsia prepared for and carried out Pilot National External Quality Assessments (NEQA) in Bangladesh and Nepal. Both pilot sites participated in baseline assessments followed by extensive training, development of tailored protocols and guidelines, and guidance on data collection and quality management systems. Representatives from Bhutan and Indonesia and the animal health sector participated in trainings as observers. The pilot sites in Bangladesh and Nepal successfully carried out a NEQA round and utilized a comprehensive digital tool that was designed to facilitate the NEQA process. These activities helped lay a solid foundation for expanding NEQA capacity across the region.

Read our NEQA summary report on our Publications page.

Confirmatory Testing and Reference Testing Services 

EQAsia offered reference and confirmatory testing services to laboratories within our network, free of charge. These services allowed the laboratories to refer multidrug-resistant isolates for confirmation and further investigation and to unravel specific resistance mechanisms by using genotypic sequencing methods. These services contributed important information for epidemiological surveillance, quality assurance and quality control of routine microbiological diagnostics. Some laboratories also published their data in peer-review journals at a later stage. 

Due to the closure of the project, we can no longer offer confirmatory testing and reference testing services.

Establishing a Community of Practice for AMR

Over the course of the project, 77 laboratories from 14 countries in the South and Southeast Asia regions joined the EQAsia network. Countries with participating laboratories included: Bangladesh; Bhutan; Brunei; Indonesia; Lao PDR; Malaysia; Maldives; Nepal; Pakistan; Papua New Guinea; Philippines; Sri Lanka; Timor-Leste; and Vietnam. 

EQAsia helped to establish a regional Community of Practice by connecting laboratories through various activities such as webinars and training initiatives. These programme activities ensured knowledge sharing and support that reached across sectors and borders. 

4: Consortium

EQAsia was a collaborative effort between a multidisciplinary consortium of experts. 

The consortium was made up of three partners: 

• Technical University of Denmark 
• International Vaccine Institute
• Faculty of Veterinary Science, Chulalongkorn University 

The National Food Institute at the Technical University of Denmark and the Faculty of Veterinary Science at Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, are leading experts and educators in the fields of diagnostics and antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST). The International Vaccine Institute in Seoul provide training across Asia in laboratory practices and quality management systems (QMS), and they also develop costing and forecasting analyses. 

The Fleming Fund

EQAsia was funded through a Regional Grant of the Fleming Fund.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC)’s Fleming Fund was A UK International Development programme supporting up to 25 countries across Africa and Asia to tackle antimicrobial resistance (AMR), a leading contributor to deaths from infectious diseases worldwide. 

The Fleming Fund invested in strengthening AMR surveillance systems through a portfolio of country grants, regional grants and fellowships managed by Mott MacDonald, and global projects managed by DHSC.