Across the EU, 25,000 people die each year from drug resistant infections[1]. Worldwide, this number will increase to 10 million by 2050[2]. This is 1.8 million more deaths than those attributed to cancer. Not only will this impact patient safety and recovery, but it risks going back to a ‘pre-antibiotic era’, where patients could die from simple bacterial infections and life-saving treatments can no longer be performed safely.
The challenge of AMR is closely linked to HAIs. In fact, HAIs are often caused by resistant bacteria[3], but the occurrence of an infection in the first place can also increase the risk of developing resistant strains.
The effective use of diagnostic tests and medical devices can help to address these challenges by:
- Preventing and containing healthcare-associated infections and the development and spread of resistant bacteria in healthcare settings to manage antimicrobial resistance.
- Detecting and identifying bacterial infections and their susceptibility to medication, therefore avoiding the misuse or overuse of antibiotics.
- Monitoring and tracking resistance and enabling patient compliance to the appropriate use of antibiotics.
- Outbreak Management and surveillance to track, contain and prevent the spread of pathogens at local, hospital, regional, national and international level.
[1] European Commission: Antimicrobial Resistance http://ec.europa.eu/health/amr/antimicrobial-resistance_en
[2] UK Government Review on Antimicrobial Resistance.https://amr-review.org/
[3] ECDC: AMR and HAIs https://ecdc.europa.eu/en/about-us/who-we-are/disease-programmes/antimicrobial-resistance-and-healthcare-associated
