Health authorities warn of the threat posed by the appearance bacteria resistant to antibiotics in hospitals or retirement homes. A new study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases has attempted to put a number on this threat. According to European researchers who calculated the contamination, superbugs infected nearly 672,000 people in Europe in 2015 and 33,000 of them died as a result of this contamination.
A number of deaths “comparable to the cumulative effect flu, tuberculosis and of the aids virus” over the same period, the researchers point out.
The highest number of deaths due to multi-resistant bacteria is recorded in Italy and Greece: one in three deaths is thus recorded in Italy.
The majority of deaths are in young children under 12 months and seniors over 65, and nearly two-thirds of these infections have been acquired in the hospital environment. The researchers therefore emphasize “the urgency of taking into account the antibiotic resistance as vital health data for patients “.
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