EU-wide data on antibiotic resistance

For the first time in 2013, ECDC monitored resistance to polymyxins (e.g. colistin) in Klebsiella pneumoniae across Europe. Colistin is a last-line antibiotic developed several decades ago that has side-effects and limitations to its use, but has become essential for the treatment of carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae infections. Increasing resistance against colistin is a cause for serious concern and a threat to patient safety. 

Vytenis Andriukaitis, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety said: “The near doubling of resistance in a certain bacteria in three years is truly alarming, and illustrates the need to tackle the issue from all directions. Antimicrobial resistance is one the most pressing public health issues of our time.”

ECDC director, Dr Marc Sprenger, said: “According to our data, resistance to colistin was observed in 5% of Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates for the EU overall. This gives us an important indication of the challenges that patients across Europe are currently facing, including access and use of old antibiotics such as polymyxins when there is a clinical need for their use. Resistance against colistin is already reported in some countries in Europe and this is a worrying development. With a smaller number of effective antibiotics, we are gradually returning to the ‘preantibiotic era’, when bacterial diseases could not be treated and most patients would die from their infection because there was no effective treatment.”