ECDC welcomes the establishment of an EU/US transatlantic taskforce on antibiotic resistance issues, focussed on appropriate use of antibiotics and strategies for improving the pipeline of new antibiotics. This will support existing joint working between ECDC and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on a wide-range of antibiotic resistance topics. ECDC has identified that rising levels of resistance being reported across Europe to an number of essential antibiotics threatens the future of modern medicine. A recent report prepared by jointly by ECDC and the European Medicines Agency (EMEA), with contributions from the international network Action on Antibiotic Resistance (ReAct), concluded that there is a gap between the burden of infections due to multidrug-resistant bacteria and the development of new antibiotics to tackle the problem; and that a European and global strategy to address this gap is urgently needed.
Furthermore, ECDC is leading the European Antibiotic Awareness Day, a campaign designed to raise awareness about the threat to public health of antibiotic resistance and to communicate about the importance of prudent antibiotic use. For more information, visit: http://antibiotic.ecdc.europa.eu
Links:
Antibiotic/Antimicrobial resistance (AMR);Antimicrobial resistance and healthcare-associated infections;