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Today, modern health care depends on antimicrobial drugs to prevent and treat infections. Antimicrobial resistance threatens the health care sector’s ability to control infections efficiently.

Definition

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is the ability of a microorganism to survive exposure to antimicrobial drugs. Genes can transfer this ability from one microorganism to another and between human beings, animals, products and the environment. Antimicrobial drugs include antiviral drugs (for instance, against HIV) or anti-parasitic drugs (for instance against malaria).

Antibacterial drugs

Antibacterial drugs, also called antibiotics, are used to prevent and treat bacterial infections such as tuberculosis and bloodstream, wound, respiratory-tract and sexually transmitted infections. Their overuse, misuse and underuse have led to an increase in and the emergence of resistance to these drugs.

The more antibiotics are used, the higher the risk of resistance. The food industry’s increased use of antibiotics can lead to the further emergence of resistant bacteria and genes that threaten human health.

Antibiotic resistance, especially in relation to hospital-acquired infections, is gaining priority as a public health issue. A key reason is that new drugs are not coming on the market soon enough.

In the European Union, and Norway and Iceland, for example, 400 000 resistant infections are estimated to occur every year, leading to about 25 000 deaths, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. Measures including good hygiene (especially hand washing), surveillance and vaccination can and should be used to prevent health-care-associated infections.

European strategic action plan on antibiotic resistance

In September 2011, the sixty-first session of the WHO Regional Committee for Europe adopted an action plan that identifies key areas where action must be taken to ensure that Europeans are safe from antibiotic resistance.

World Health Day 2011

Antimicrobial resistance was the theme for 2011, with the slogan “no action today, no cure tomorrow”. The campaign focused on raising policy-makers’ and the public’s awareness of the dangers of antimicrobial resistance.