Surveillance of antimicrobial use can provide insights on how antimicrobials are being utilised in healthcare settings. Data from antimicrobial utilisation surveillance are useful tools to inform therapy decisions, to assess the public health consequences of antimicrobial misuse, and to evaluate the impact of resistance containment interventions. Information on antimicrobial utilisation is essential in the development of strategies for a more judicious use of antimicrobials.

Antibiotic utilisation surveillance at national level has been established in selected Malaysian hospitals since 2001 and currently covers selected hospitals under the Ministry of Health (MoH), Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE), Ministry of Defence (MinDef) and private hospitals. The surveillance has expanded to the primary care setting (MoH health clinics) since July 2015. In 2020, data collection on antifungal utilisation has been started at a few MOH hospitals. The surveillance is currently known as the National Surveillance on Antimicrobial Utilisation (NSAU).

Data were reported using standardised usage density rates, based on the World Health Organization’s Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical standards for ‘defined daily doses’ (DDDs) which allows comparison at state, national and regional level. This report covers use of 17 selected antibiotics and 1 antifungal at the hospitals and 2 antibiotics at the health clinics for the period of January to December 2022. It includes data from 101 hospitals and 384 health clinics.