Experts agree that resistance among Europeans to antibiotics has continued to rise despite warnings about the danger of overuse.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) reports that resistance continued to increase between 2012 and 2015 across EU countries for most of the bacteria and drugs that they monitored.
Some life-threatening infectious diseases could become untreatable and some types of major surgery could be perilous if antibiotics are no longer effective.
The report pointed to the grave threat posed over resistance to those antibiotics deemed to be ‘last line’, namely those where no other drugs to treat patients exist.
The proportions of resistant bacteria were found to be higher in southern and southeastern EU countries, according to the acting head of the Centre.
“Antibiotic resistance is one of the most pressing public health issues of our time. If we don’t tackle it, we can go back to a time when even the simplest medical operations were not possible and organ transplants, cancer chemotherapy or intensive care even less so,” said the European commissioner for health and food safety.
