Brussels, 16/03/2012 (Agence Europe) - Combating antimicrobial resistance is one of the top health priorities of the Danish Presidency. European experts and officials took part in a conference on that specific theme on 14-15 March, together with representatives from candidate and EEA countries and from public interest bodies, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). The aim of the conference was to fuel debate within the EU Council with a view to adopting common measures at European level to combat antimicrobial resistance.
Overuse of antimicrobials (antibiotics) causes the development of increasing resistance among pathogenic bacteria. As a result, diseases that could previously be easily treated with antibiotics are now remarkably difficult to cure, at times proving fatal for patients. Each year, over 25,000 European citizens die because of treatment that has lost its effect. The latest statistics give rise to concern: - an increasing number of bacteria develop resistance to antimicrobials and an increasing number of antibiotics are losing their effectiveness.
The results of research clearly show there is a correlation between the consumption of antibiotics in farms and the development of resistance to antibiotics in Man, the Danish Presidency underlines. The conference focused on ways to resolve problems relating to antimicrobial resistance in both human and veterinary medicine, mainly through the exchange of best practice. Solutions envisaged include: better surveillance and better data collection, a halt to the overuse of antibiotics, and scaling back on the use of antibiotics of vital importance. “This is a serious threat to health services and there is an urgent need both for limitations on usage as well as better targeted use of antimicrobials. The response needs to be worldwide as resistant bacteria do not respect borders. I wish the EU to lead the fight against overuse of antimicrobials and the subsequent development of resistant bacteria”, said Danish Health Minister Pia Olsen Dyhr, who jointly chaired the conference with Agriculture Minister Mette Gjerskov. “There is a need for better guidelines and restrictive use of antimicrobials for animals, not least with regard to the critically important antibiotics”, the latter said.
Underlining Denmark's pioneering approach, having restricted the use of antimicrobials back in the 1990s, the minister underlined that she would put Denmark's best practice to advantage in order to conduct the battle, on behalf of the EU, with a view to restricting the use of antibiotics in farming. (IL/transl.jl)