In the EU, more than 35,000 people die each year from infections with bacteria that have become resistant to antibiotics. That is the same as flu, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS combined.
The new figures from the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) show that antibiotics with a broad effect are increasingly being administered in European hospitals. In the past ten years, use has even increased by 15 percent.
But if an antibiotic is used regularly against a bacteria, that bacteria can become resistant to it. The bacteria are then no longer sensitive to the agent and common infections such as those of the lower respiratory tract become increasingly difficult to treat.
35,000 dead
As a result, 35,000 patients die every year in Europe – almost a hundred a day, according to new figures from the ECDC. For example, antibiotic resistance in Europe is becoming as big a public health problem as influenza, TB and HIV/AIDS combined.
“More efforts are needed to continue to reduce unnecessary use of antibiotics.”
“We are seeing a worrying increase in the number of deaths due to infections with drug-resistant bacteria: almost 100 people now die every day from such infections,” says ECDC Director Andrea Ammon. “More efforts are needed to continue to reduce unnecessary antibiotic use, improve infection prevention and control, design and implement management programs, and ensure sufficient microbiological capacity at the national level.”
Global problem
The problem is by no means limited to Europe alone. A recent study in The Lancet shows that antibiotic resistance led to at least 1.2 million deaths worldwide in 2019. In comparison, 860,000 people died of HIV/AIDS in the same year and 640,000 people were killed by malaria.
The use of antibiotics in livestock farming also plays a role in this. And according to some experts, the covid-19 pandemic also plays a role: after all, many patients have been prescribed antibiotics for secondary bacteriological infections.
