General comments for comparison of antimicrobial consumption data from different countries and/or years:
Total care includes data both from the hospital sector and the community (primary care sector) and overestimates the figures when used for reporting for the community sector.
This report indicates for each country and for each year the type of data reported, either reimbursement, sales or both data together.
Reimbursement data do not include consumption of antimicrobials obtained without prescription and other non-reimbursed courses compared to sales data.
The extent of consumption not included when using reimbursement data may vary by country. For more information please see: Safrany N, Monnet DL. Antibiotics obtained without a prescription in Europe.
Lancet Infect Dis. 2012 Mar;12(3):182-3 and refer to the annual ESAC-Net reports (www.ecdc.europa.eu) 