The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) has unveiled new statistics, which spotlight a concerning trend within the European Union (EU) regarding antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and antibiotic consumption. As per the findings from the European Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance Network (EARS-Net) rolled out in sync with the European Antibiotic Awareness Day, there has been an escalation in AMR levels across EU in 2023. Alarmingly, it highlights a close to 60% upswing in bloodstream infections resulting from carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae as opposed to the benchmark year of 2019.
Simultaneously, an uptick in hospital and community-level antibiotic consumption within the EU has been observed from 2019. According to these findings, the levels of both AMR and antibiotic consumption in 2023 have exceeded the 2030 targets set forth by the Council of the European Union. ECDC’s Director, Pamela Rendi-Wagner, MD, accentuated the significant burden of AMR on patients and their kin, pointing out the deaths of over 35,000 individuals in the EU annually due to drug-resistant infections.
The report from EARS-Net also highlights the increasing number of antibiotic-resistant healthcare-associated infections. While this report reveals a mix of positive and negative findings, the documented increase in infections triggered by carbapenem-resistant K pneumoniae and third-generation cephalosporin-resistant E coli are of grave concern. In light of these findings, ECDC officials have issued a call to action for hospitals to prioritize infection prevention and control measures.
In addition to recommending steps like improving hand hygiene, they stress the need for enhanced screening for resistant bacteria, increased capacity for patient isolation, and a greater focus on dedicated infection prevention and control personnel. Concurrently, the report from the European Surveillance of Antimicrobial Consumption Network (ESAC-Net) demonstrates a slight upturn in antibiotic consumption in 2023 from 2019.
The ECDC has emphasized the urgent need for harmonized efforts across EU member states, comprehensive infection prevention in hospitals, the development of new antibiotics, public health awareness campaigns, and strategic antimicrobial stewardship efforts both within hospitals and at the community level.