EU member states failing to curb use of antimicrobials
Four countries have not even started to implement national strategies
EU member states are curbing insufficiently antimicrobial medicine use, a European Commission report has found.
Examining the response to 2002 formal EU guidelines (called a ‘recommendation’) on dealing with the problem, the Commission concluded: ‘There are still numerous areas of the recommendation where only limited improvement has been attained.’
Indeed by December 2008, it found 11 of the 27 member states had yet to establish a national strategy on antimicrobial over--use, with four countries failing to even start the job (although Brussels did not name-and-shame). Also, although 22 countries had national programmes for hospital hygiene and infection control and 20 had mandatory hospital infection control committees, only three states insisted on these steps for nursing homes.
As a result, the Commission advised the ‘rapid development and efficient implementation of national strategies and national action plans in all member states.’ And it called for ‘greater involvement of nursing homes and…long-term care [homes]’ when developing antimicrobial resistance plans.