Multidrug-resistant bacteria have caused 33,000 deaths in Europe in 2015

Paris.- According to the calculations of European researchers, antibiotic-resistant bacteria would be responsible for the deaths of 33,000 people in the European Union in 2015, was published in the journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases .

Researchers have developed a computational model for five types of infections based on data from the European Surveillance Network on Antimicrobial Resistance (EARS).

In 2015, they calculated the number of infected persons at 671,689 and the number of deaths attributable to multidrug-resistant bacteria at 33,110.

The impact is "comparable to the cumulative effect of influenza, tuberculosis and the AIDS virus "according to the authors, during the same period

. Most deaths occur in children under 12 years of age and those over 65 years of age.

The impact in terms of mortality is greater in Italy and Greece (the former concentrates more than a third of deaths), according to the study.

The medical sector constantly warns against the risk of excessive or inadequate consumption of antibiotics, which makes bacteria resistant to these.

An Australian team highlighted in September the dangerous proliferation of bacteria resistant to all existing drugs, Staphylococcus epidermidis, which can cause serious illness and death, and which is linked to methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) [19659002] Of the 671,689 infections caused by multidrug-resistant bacteria in 2015, about two-thirds were contracted in hospitals.

The researchers point out "the urgency of considering antibiotic resistance as an essential health data" and "the need to devise alternative treatments for patients with other diseases and more vulnerable because of the weakening of their immune defenses or age ".