European gonococcal antimicrobial surveillance programme external quality assessment scheme for neisseria gonorrhoeae antimicrobial susceptibility testing : 2017

External quality assessments (EQA) are an essential part of any laboratory-based surveillance system, allowing for the monitoring of performance and comparability of results from participating laboratories, identification of potential issues and deployment of resources and training where necessary. An EQA scheme for antimicrobial susceptibility testing in Neisseria gonorrhoeae has been available to laboratories participating in ECDC's European Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI) surveillance network since 2010. This EQA scheme has so far shown high levels of inter-laboratory comparability in the presence of differing methodologies. Problems identified previously included reduced comparability of results determined using discs compared with those determined by agar dilution and gradient strips, media not suitably supporting gonococcal growth, and the use of gradient strips from one manufacturer. This is the third EQA to be published on antimicrobial susceptibility testing in Neisseria gonorrhoeae.