Complacency kills. Antibiotic resistance still on the rise in Europe

WHO raises the alert on World Health Day

Copenhagen, 7 April 2011

Every year in the European Union alone it is estimated that over 25 000 people die of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections, mostly acquired in hospitals. In the wider WHO European Region, which encompasses 53 countries, the full number is not known as data are not available, but the signs suggest that the situation is even worse. Doctors and scientists across the Region fear that with the reckless use of antibiotics, resulting in the emergence and spread of antibiotic-resistant infections, we could return to a pre-antibiotic era where simple infections do not respond to treatment, and routine operations and interventions may become life-threatening.

On the occasion of World Health Day 2011, under the slogan “No action today, no cure tomorrow”, WHO/Europe is highlighting the real and urgent risks of lifesaving antibiotics losing their healing power, and is targeting the need to reduce complacency, ignorance and irresponsibility. It calls on all key stakeholders, including policy-makers and planners, the public and patients, practitioners and prescribers, veterinarians, farmers, pharmacists and the pharmaceutical industry, to use antibiotics properly and responsibly...

the press release

Source: USA: Drug-Resistant Staph Bacteria Found in Meat, Poultry Nationwide
Author: WHO

Link: Drug-Resistant Staph Spells Trouble For Meat Industry
Link: Experts in Moscow discuss antibiotic resistance on World Health Day
Link: Research finds staph bug in meat
Link: Rise of the Superbugs
Link: World Health Day 2011 – Antibiotic resistance: No action today, no cure tomorrow


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