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Antibiotic resistance: a global call to action

A three-date meeting of the World HAI Forum, hosted by bioMérieux, took place in June and welcomed speakers from Europe, North America and Australia. Over 70 international experts in medicine, infectious diseases, microbiology and epidemiology, from every continent, gathered at the Fondation Mérieux’s Conference Center for the third meeting of the World HAI Forum on healthcare-associated infections (HAIs), a bioMérieux initiative. During the forum, participants called upon national and international health authorities and policy-makers, the medical and veterinary communities, industry and the general public to take action to avoid an impending public health catastrophe caused by the emergence and spread of bacteria that are resistant to all antibiotics.

While research to discover new antibiotics has slowed to a virtual standstill, bacterial resistance has increased due to the massive use and misuse of antibiotics, not only for human health but also in animals. The treatment of certain common infections is becoming difficult and the success of immunosuppressive therapies and surgical intervention (eg organ transplant and cardiac surgery), which are associated with a high risk of bacterial infection, could be compromised.

The emergence of pan-resistant NDM-1 bacteria and the epidemic involving multidrug-resistant Escherichia coli seen recently in Europe should be taken as a major public health warning, indicating that a new era of antimicrobial resistance has begun. This must lead to a global awakening, and the protection of antibiotics has now entered the sphere of sustainable development.

Twelve actions
In a continuation of calls to action and proposals made by major national and international organisations such as the World Health Organization (WHO), European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) and Centers for Disease Control and prevention (CDC), the forum’s participants identified priority areas to fight bacterial resistance and recommended 12 actions to be implemented, in the short- to mid-term, to address this serious problem effectively. These priorities were aimed at policy-makers and health authorities, the human and veterinary healthcare communities, the general public, and industry.

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