In summary
Antibiotic resistance remains a very serious threat due to the limitations of current agents and poor public knowledge about
bacterial infections. The European Antibiotic Awareness Day campaign represents a continuing effort to combat these problems
across the region, but measures are also needed to boost new pharmaceutical industry R&D efforts. Although the 2009 European
Observatory on Health Systems and Policies report was a welcome step forward in summarising thinking of how to stimulate new
industry research, it has not yet prompted governments to implement specific incentives. In 2009, a survey among European
intensive care physicians found that 53% had treated at least one patient infected with a bacterium totally or almost totally
resistant to available antibiotics during the previous 6 months.10 Worrying developments such as these are a warning that governments must bring a sense of urgency to incentivising new antibiotic
R&D efforts.
References
1. About European Antibiotic Awareness Day (2008). antibiotic2008.ecdc.europa.eu
2. The overuse of antibiotics — Eurobarometer statistics.
http://efpia.blogspot.com/
3. E. Mossialos, et al., Policies and incentives for promoting innovation in antibiotic research (2010).
http://www.euro.who.int/
4. Antimicrobial Resistance, Eurobarometer 72.5 (2009). ec.europa.eu
5. Les Antibiotiques, Eurobarometer Special (2003). ec.europa.eu
6. C.A.M. McNulty, J. Antimicrob. Chemo., 65,1526-1533 (2010).
7. S. Coenen, et al., Acta Clinica Belgica, 63-5 (2008).
8. B. Huttner. Antibiotics Are Not Automatic Anymore — The French National Campaign To Cut Antibiotic Overuse. PLoS Medicine
6(6) (2009).
http://www.plosmedicine.org/
9. L. Jarvis, An Uphill Battle (2008).
http://pubs.acs.org/cen/
10. A. Lepape, Eurosurveillance, 14(45), 12 (2009).
http://www.eurosurveillance.org/
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