The prevention of bacterial resistance is one of the public health priorities. A goal far from being achieved since the consumption of antibiotics in France has been on the rise since 2010.
Monitoring the consumption of antibiotics is one of the judgment criteria of the Antibiotics Plan 2011-2016 setting a target of 25% in terms of reducing consumption by 2016. This goal set by the Ministry of Health is far from being achieved. The bad news was indeed announced Thursday morning by the Drug Safety Agency (ANSM). At a press conference yesterday, she unveiled her latest report on ” The evolution of antibiotic consumption in France between 2000 and 2013. “These latest data deemed” worrying “still place France among the countries of Europe where the consumption of antibiotics remains very high. This would be 30% higher compared to our European neighbors.
Pressure on prescribers
Worse still, while the consumption of antibiotics had decreased from the 2000s (-10.7% between 2000 and 2013), an upward trend has been observed for three years (+ 5.9%). “And it was confirmed in 2013, especially in city medicine,” says the Agency. The latter brings together all liberal health professionals who work in town offices, and not in hospitals.
Moreover, in volume, more than 90% of the consumption of antibiotics is done in the city sector. However, the hospital is not left behind in this general increase. Since about 4 in 10 patients receive a dose of the antibiotic in a hospital on any given day, the report says. A “high” figure according to the ANSM.
Finally, in 2013, generic antibiotics represented 82.5% of antibiotic consumption in the city. For Philippe Cavalié, economics referent for health products at the ANSM, “it is so much to find new actions to once again reduce the consumption of antibiotics in France. “
Listen to Philippe Cavalié, ANSM “Economy” referent for health products: ” Some patients put pressure on their doctor to prescribe an antibiotic. We also see that the campaign message has run out of steam. “
Women, children, the elderly: the biggest consumers
In addition, this report also reveals the profile of the heaviest consumers of antibiotics. 59.3% of them are women. These consumptions can result from the frequency of cystitis in the female population between 15 and 54 years. “Children and the elderly also have a lot of prescriptions for antibiotics”, specifies Philippe Cavalié.
For these populations, respiratory tract conditions are the main cause of antibiotic prescriptions (70%), followed by urinary tract infections and ear infections. And they had an average duration of treatment, all causes combined, of 9.2 days in 2013.
Antibiotic resistance worries experts
And what do these patients consume? “The breakdown of antibiotic consumption in cities by large class shows that penicillins remain the most widely used antibiotics, particularly in combination with beta-lactamase inhibitors. Their use even increased significantly during the period studied, ”comments Philippe Cavalié.
Beta-lactams, penicillins and cephalosporins (J01C + J01D) indeed represent more than two-thirds of outpatient antibiotic consumption.
Another figure, the comparison of consumption in these different classes in 2000 and 2013 shows that the share of penicillin combinations has increased significantly, from 13.9% to 24.4%.
For ANSM experts, “such a progression is all the more worrying given that amoxicillin associated with clavulanic acid is one of the antibiotics which generate particularly bacterial resistance. “
Listen to Philippe Cavalié : ” The increase in consumption must be linked to the development of resistance to antibiotics. They can lead to therapeutic dead ends and therefore to death.. “
Europe: bacterial resistance causes 25,000 deaths per year
And this contat has dramatic repercussions on public health. Each year, tens of thousands of patients die from a therapeutic impasse, the origin of which is bacterial resistance.
Incidentally, the Agency underlines that this problem affects all of Europe, the United States, but especially France. “The high level of antibiotic consumption in France is very worrying,” said the ANSM.
In this context, “the actions taken to achieve a fair use of antibiotics, to prevent the development of bacterial resistance and to promote the development of new substances, are public health priorities”, concludes Philippe Cavalié.
Listen to Philippe Cavalié : “ There are figures which recently showed that there were 25,000 patients in Europe who died each year as a result of a therapeutic deadlock.… “
.
