It’s not a red alert yet, but the distress signals are already flashing. Resistance to antimicrobial antibiotics (AMR) “poses a serious threat to public health and animal health,” says the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA), in a report published this week and relayed by AFP.
These bacteria which resist the molecules available on the market are responsible for 25,000 deaths each year within the EU. Not all EU countries are in the same boat. Those in the north and west have lower resistance levels than average.
“For example, explains Marta Hugas, head of the contaminants and biological hazards unit at EFSA, those who have implemented measures to reduce and rethink the use of these molecules in animals in particular present lower resistance rates and a downward trend. »
This is why Europe intends to coordinate the measures put in place to propose a global action plan.
An emergency commensurate with the medium-term threat. In 2050, antibiotic resistance could be more deadly than cancer and cost the lives of 10 million people. With a bill of one trillion dollars a year, according to Jim O’Neill.
In his report submitted last year to the British Prime Minister, this economist proposed three measures to stop this infernal machine. Impose the principle of “pay or play” on the pharmaceutical industry. Companies would be obliged either to resume their research to find new molecules, or to finance laboratories which would embark on this path. For 40 years, it is true, only one class has been discovered.
Another drastic measure proposed: force doctors to use rapid tests to find out whether or not the patient has a bacterial or viral infection. Only the first should give rise to a prescription for antibiotics.
Finally, the specialist recommends curbing the use of antibiotics in animal consumption. The cost of these measures, he specifies, would be much less than that of sitting idly by.
Find the program l’Invité santé with Professor Patrice Courvalin, professor emeritus at the Institut Pasteur,
aired on December 15, 2016