Brussels, 18/11/2011 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 17 November, the European Commission presented a five-year plan intended to combat the growing threats related to infections caused by antibiotic resistance, a phenomenon that kills around 25,000 people in Europe each year.
“We need to take swift and determined action”, European Health Commissioner John Dalli told the 27 EU member states, saying that antimicrobial resistance has become a major problem, not only at European level but worldwide.
The European action plan, which was presented on Friday 18 November, the day before the “European Antibiotic Awareness Day”, proposes 12 concrete measures to be implemented in close cooperation with member states. These mainly include strengthened infection prevention and controls in hospitals and clinics; the cautious use of antimicrobials; and an increased research effort. Currently, there is under-investment in research.
The action plan mainly targets the increasingly widespread use of antimicrobials that are “essential medicines for humans and animals”, used in livestock farming, a problem that gives rise to growing concern.
John Dalli regrets the fact that illegal practices are rife in Europe, where farmers give antibiotics to their livestock without prescription and without a veterinarian present. The use of such drugs can be reduced as, for animals, prescriptions of certain groups of antibiotics, such as third and fourth generation cephalosporins, can be replaced by other treatment proven to be just as effective.
Unlike most of the other regions of the world, the EU already bans the use of antibiotics for stimulating animal growth. The European Parliament, however, hopes to take things further by calling for a gradual stop to the practice for prophylactic purposes.
At the same time, the Commission calls on national authorities to step up efforts undertaken to reduce the use of antibiotics by patients. “The countries using the most antibiotics are also those where resistance-related infections are the most prevalent”, stressed Marc Sprenger, the director of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. The countries of southern Europe, in particular, such as Greece, Bulgaria and Italy, are particularly prone to over-use of antimicrobial drugs.
The European action plan also aims to reduce the number of infections contracted in healthcare centres. It underlines that between 20% and 30% of all such infections can be prevented by intensive prevention and control programmes. The impact of such measures is important as the cost of infections is estimated at €1.5 billion at least in addition to health spending and loss of productivity, according to a survey carried out in 2007.
Investment in new antibiotics needs to be reactivated, said Dalli, as it is suffering from declining interest on the part of large pharmaceutical groups. “We need to take swift and determined action if we do not want to lose antimicrobial medicines as essential treatment against bacterial infections in both humans and animals”, he said, recommending private-public contribution to speed up the development of new medicines in that sector. (LC/transl.jl)