Last Lines of Antibiotic Defenses Are Falling, a Pressing World Issue

ECDC Acting Director, Dr Andrea Ammon, said: “Antibiotic resistance in Klebsiella pneumoniae is of increasing concern in Europe. More than one third of the isolates reported to ECDC for 2015 were resistant to at least one of the antibiotic groups under surveillance, and combined resistance to multiple antibiotic groups was common. 

ECDC’s data also show that antibiotic resistance in Escherichia coli, one of the most frequent causes of bloodstream infections and community- and healthcare-associated urinary tract infections, requires close attention as the percentages of isolates resistant to commonly used antibiotics continues to increase throughout Europe. In contrast, the percentage of meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) showed a significantly decreasing trend at EU/EEA level between 2012 and 2015. Despite this positive development, MRSA remains a public health priority as eight out of thirty countries reported percentages above 25%.

Dr Zsuzsanna Jakab, WHO Regional Director for Europe said: “Surveillance of antibiotic resistance is the backbone of our work in defense of antibiotics’ effectiveness. Until we know where resistance is, we cannot prioritize action. This is why we focus on expanding the map of antibiotic resistance beyond the European Union countries through the Central Asian and Eastern European Surveillance of Antimicrobial Resistance (CAESAR) network. What the report indicates is of concern: our patients are exposed to resistant bacteria in hospitals due to overuse and misuse of antibiotics and poor infection prevention and control. We urge our leaders to use this evidence and accelerate their response to a major global health threat of our time”.

Activities promoting prudent use of antibiotics are organised in more than 40 countries across the European Region during the week of 18 November to mark European Antibiotic Awareness Day. ECDC works jointly with the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Europe, and partners World Antibiotic Awareness Week.

ECDC, in cooperation with the European Commission, will host an EU-level launch event entitled “European Antibiotic Awareness Day: the future is now”. The planned interventions will not only present the current situation and future steps at EU level, but will also aim at highlighting how resistance to antibiotics is affecting our lives today and what can be done by different sectors to ensure that they remain effective.