Antimicrobial resistance is the focus of World Health Day 2011, 7 April. On this occasion, ECDC Director Marc Sprenger presents today the ‘Situation update on antibiotic resistance’ to the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
Current trends show both progress and challenges in controlling the spread of multi-resistant bacteria in Europe. Public health actions have helped to limit the spread of some drug-resistant microbes, such as MRSA, states latest data from the ECDC’s surveillance network EARS-Net. Meanwhile, a recent development in Europe is the emergence and spread of another group of bacteria, resistant to almost all available antibiotics, known as carbapenemase-producing enterobacteria or CPE.
A gap exists between the burden of multidrug-resistant infections in the EU today and the state of the drug development. Fostering research and development of new antibiotics is essential. ( The bacterial challenge: time to react)
Since 2008, ECDC is coordinating the European Antibiotic Awareness Day (EAAD) – a European health initiative that promotes prudent use of antibiotics. EAAD provides educational materials for use in national campaigns aimed at different audiences – general public, primary care prescribers and hospital prescribers.
Other ECDC activities on the occasion of the World Health Day include presentations by ECDC experts today at the World Health Organization (WHO) scientific briefings on epidemiology and on surveillance of antibiotic resistance and healthcare-associated infections in the European Union.
WHO marks the Day with a campaign called ‘Antibiotic resistance: No action today, no cure tomorrow’.
ECDC Director Marc Sprenger’s presentation ‘Situation update on antibiotic resistance’
Highlights of Director's speech
About World Health Day
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR)
ECDC Antimicrobial Resistance and Healthcare-associated Infections Programme
European Antibiotic Awareness Day (EAAD)
Trans Atlantic Task Force on Antimicrobial Resistance (TATFAR)
Health-EU Newsletter 68 – Antimicrobial resistance: the need for international cooperation