European Antibiotic Awareness Day 2016: News release

On the occasion of the 9th European Antibiotic Awareness Day, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) is releasing its latest EU-wide data on antibiotic resistance and antibiotic consumption.

In 2015, antibiotic resistance continued to increase for most bacteria and antibiotics under surveillance. In particular, the EU average percentage of carbapenem resistance in Klebsiella pneumoniae increased from 6.2% in 2012 to 8.1% in 2015, and combined resistance to carbapenems and polymyxins (e.g. colistin) was sometimes reported. These two groups of antibiotics are considered last-line antibiotics as they usually are the last treatment options for patients infected with bacteria resistant to other available antibiotics. While antibiotic consumption in hospitals significantly increased in several EU Member States, antibiotic consumption in the community decreased in six EU Member States.

Summary of the latest data on antibiotic resistance in the European Union

1 Nov 2016 - The data presented in this section were collected by the European Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance Network (EARS-Net), which is coordinated by ECDC. For 2015, a total of 30 countries, including all EU Member States and two EEA countries (Iceland and Norway), reported data to EARS-Net. For more details on EARS-Net, surveillance results and information on methods, please refer to the EARS-Net Annual Report 2014i and the ECDC Surveillance Atlas of Infectious Diseasesii .

Last-line antibiotics are failing: options to address this urgent threat to patients and healthcare systems

14 Sep 2017 - The emergence and spread of highly-resistant bacteria, especially those resistant to ‘last-line’ antibiotics, such as carbapenems and colistin, is a grave public health concern and a threat to patient safety and economies in Europe and globally.

European Antibiotic Awareness Day: the future is now

Last-line antibiotics are failing

18 Nov 2016 - On the occasion of the 9th European Antibiotic Awareness Day, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) is releasing its latest EU-wide data on antibiotic resistance and antibiotic consumption.

Summary of the latest data on antibiotic consumption in the European Union

1 Nov 2016 - Antibiotic consumption data presented in this summary were collected by the European Surveillance of Antimicrobial Consumption Network (ESAC-Net) at ECDC.

Antibiotics: Be responsible

The infographic explains what antibiotic resistance is and highlights the extent of the problems that we are facing due to antibiotic resistance and antibiotic consumption in humans – in hospitals and in the community.

Patient stories

Stories of people whose lives were dramatically changed by antibiotic-resistant superbugs