The way antibiotic resistance is growing even in developed countries, it warns us to take immediate steps to control it by using antibiotics only when it is needed not to use it in every prescription as practised now. More than 33,000 people died from antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections in the European Union and European Economic Area (EU/EEA) during 2015, a study has found. The estimated burden of these infections has doubled since 2007 and was similar to the combined burden of influenza, tuberculosis, and HIV.
Most of the estimated burden was in hospitals and other healthcare settings, suggesting an "urgent need to address antimicrobial resistance as a patient safety issue and the need for alternative treatment options for patients with such infections who have comorbidities or are otherwise vulnerable (eg, because of their poor immune system or age)," the authors explain. An…
