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LONDON (Reuters) – Superbug infections to prevent antibiotics kill around 33,000 people in Europe, health experts said on Monday, and the burden of these diseases is comparable to that of tuberculosis and HIV combined.
An analysis by the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) found the impact of drug-resistant infections had increased since 2007, with regard to cases of bugs resistant to even the most powerful, last-resort antibiotics – including a class of Drugs known as carbapenems.
"This … is worrying about these antibiotics are the last treatment options available," the ECDC said in a statement. "When these are no longer effective, it is extremely difficult, in many cases, impossible to treat infections."
Specialists estimate that around 70 percent of the bacteria that can cause infection are already resistant to at least one antibiotic that is commonly used to treat them.
This one has made the evolution of "superbugs" that can be one of the biggest threats facing medicine today.
The ECDC study, published in the Lancet Infectious Diseases Journal, focused on five types of infections caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the European Union and the European Economic Area (EU / EEA).
It found that around 75 percent of the burden of infection is in hospitals and health-associated infections (HAIs).
"Strategies to prevent and control antibiotic-resistant bacteria need coordination at EU / EEA and global level," it said. It adds to the differences in the numbers of cases and the types of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in different countries, prevention and control measures need to be tailored to national situations.
(Kate Kelland Reporting, Editing by Mark Potter)
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