The fight against antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is an absolute priority for the European Commission and is an integral part of many actions carried out within the framework of the European Health Union, the institution declared on Friday 17 November.
In the run-up to European Antibiotic Awareness Day, new data published on Friday 17 November by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) shows that progress has been made between 2019 and 2022 towards the target of reducing antimicrobial use by 20% by 2030.
Although global long-term antibiotic use fell by 2.5% in the EU/EEA between 2019 and 2022, consumption rose again in 2022 as many Europeans returned to their pre-Covid-19 pandemic lifestyles.
A study carried out by the OECD on behalf of the Commission shows that AMR costs EU/EEA countries around €11.7 billion a year.
If each EU/EEA country invested €3.40 per capita each year in interventions to combat AMR in the human health and food sectors, it could prevent more than 10,000 deaths and more than 600,000 new infections, and save its healthcare systems more than €2.5 billion a year.
Stella Kyriakides, Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, said that the figures revealed “are concerning, showing that urgent and ambitious action is needed”.
AMR is a key element of the proposed review of pharmaceutical legislation presented last spring. EU health ministers have approved a target to reduce human consumption of antimicrobials by 20% and to halve global EU sales of antimicrobials used in farm animals and aquaculture by 2030.
Link to ECDC data: https://aeur.eu/f/9m7 (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)