The importance of meropenem resistance, rather than imipenem resistance, in defining carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales for public health surveillance: an analysis of national population-based surveillance.

"Declarations Ethics approval and consent to participateFor the NESID data, informed consent and ethics review were waived based on Article 3 of Ethical Guidelines for Medical and Health Research Involving Human Subjects which was issued by Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Misnistry of Health, Labour and Welfare, and Ministry of Economy, Trade and Indsuty, because it was collected under the Japanese Infectious Diseases Control Law: Act on the Prevention of Infectious Diseases and Medical Care for Patients with Infectious Diseases. The NESID data contains individual-level data but does not include identifiable information. Collecting and conducting the AST of isolates from reported cases at NIID was beyond the scope of the national surveillance program and was approved by the medical research ethics committee of the NIID for the use of human subjects on December 12, 2021 with reference number 1344. Consent for publicationNot applicable Competing interestsThe authors declare no competing interests. Competing interests The authors declare no competing interests."

"Funding This work was supported by a grant for Research on Emerging and Re-emerging Infectious Diseases and Immunization from the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (19HA1001, 22HA2001) and the Research Program on Emerging and Re-emerging Infectious Diseases of the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED) [grant number JP21fk0108604, 22fk0108604, JP23fk0108604]."