Raising awareness to combat antimicrobial resistance: European Antibiotic Awareness Day

European Antibiotic Awareness Day EAAD was held on 18 November 2020 with activities taking place during that week. As in previous years, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) actively contributed to raising awareness about Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) and how to limit it by publishing a set of infocards, developed to reinforce global cooperation to combat AMR.

EAAD is an annual European Union initiative to raise awareness of antimicrobial resistance as an increasing global public health threat and to promote the prudent use of antibiotics.

‘Tackling antimicrobial resistance is a global challenge and a high priority for EMA and the European medicines regulatory network. We all have a role to play in addressing this challenge: regulators, governments, companies through development of new innovative antibiotics, but also healthcare professionals and patients by making sure they prescribe and use antibiotics wisely and responsibly’ said Emer Cooke, EMA’s Executive Director.

To mark EAAD, the EMA launched a social media campaign to highlight the importance of using antibiotics prudently.

A set of info-cards focuses on what patients, healthcare professionals, veterinarians, health-leaders, journalists and the pharmaceutical industry in their respective roles can do on a daily basis to make sure that these important medicines are used wisely.

Antimicrobial resistance occurs when bacteria and other microorganisms change over time and develop resistance to medicines. As a result, antibiotics and other antimicrobial medicines become less effective. This makes infections harder and harder to treat. A prudent use of antibiotics helps slow the process and ensure that treatments continue to be available to treat common and emerging infectious diseases.

For more information on the EMA’s role in the global response to antimicrobial resistance, see Antimicrobial resistance.

You can see examples of the cards below. The full set of these infocards is downloadable on this link. 

 

 

Markus Zeitlinger in Stockholm at EACPT Congress discussing better use of antibiotics

The 14th EACPT Congress is being held from 29th June to 2nd July in 2019 in Stockholm as a partnership between the EACPT and the Swedish Society for Pharmacology, Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics.

Failure to respond to antibiotics is a major international concern. In this short video you can hear keynote EACPT Congress speaker Professor Markus Zeitlinger discuss how clinical pharmacologists can help to improve the effects of antibiotics by careful monitoring of drug levels and the patient's response to these powerful medicines.

Discussants  

Professor Markus Zeitlinger, Head of the Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Medical University of Vienna
Professor Donald Singer: co-opted member of the Executive Committee of the EACPT.
 
The next EACPT Congress
The next EACPT biennial congress will be held in Athens. The programme will provide an international scientific and educational forum for discussion of clinical pharmacology and therapeutics, including personalised pharmacotherapy. See more on our website.

Joining the EACPT
Anyone from anywhere in the world with a professional interest in clinical pharmacology and therapeutics can now join the EACPT as an Individual Associate member.

Membership benefits include:

* Discounted registration fees for EACPT meetings
* Online subscription to the EACPT Official journal: the European Journal of Clinical Pharmacology
* Access to the EACPT’s worldwide network of Individual Associate Members
* Active involvement in EACPT 

25th Anniversary
The EACPT was founded 25 years ago and now includes as members all major national organisations for clinical pharmacology in Europe, as well as organisations from further afield internationally. The EACPT aims to provide educational and scientific support for the more than 4000 individual professionals interested in clinical pharmacology and therapeutics throughout the European region, with its congresses attended by a global audience. The EACPT also advises policy makers on how the specialty can contribute to human health and wealth. Find out more about the EACPT ...

Future EACPT Congresses

2021  Athens

2023  Rotterdam

2025  Helsinki

Global threat of antibiotic resistance

WHO estimates of impact on mortality from AMR

The European Medicines agency, in partnership with the ECDC (European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control), is holding a workshop on global challenges from antimicrobial resistance (AMR). 

There are 3 major current approaches to tackling AMR: 
1. reducing selection pressure on microbes to reduce the chance of their developing AMR. This needs strategies to reduce overuse of antimicrobial medicines. 
2. reducing human/human and animal/human transmission microbes. This needs effective infection control measures
3. increasing the availability of new antibiotics through more R & D combined with limiting their use within evidence-based guidelines - ie effective antibiotic stewardship.

There needs to be an integrated approach combining a pipeline of effective new antimicrobial and careful stewardship of existing antimicrobials through their effective use. However from a recent international survey, 20% of the public who took part were unaware that overuse of antibiotics leads to antimicrobial resistance to treatment. Furthermore 44% were unaware that antibiotics are ineffective against colds and 'flu'.

The WHO has estimated that, without major global action, by 2050 there may be ~400,000 preventable deaths annualy in the European region alone, as a result of lack of effective antiobiotics for serious infections.

Martial Plantady from the European Commission opened the day by discussing the EU Action plan launched in 2011 and running until 2016 against the threats from antimicrobial resistance. He noted that many solutions were described within the plan however there remain major challenges to effective implementation of the Plan, including:
- widespread and worldwide antibiotic use for growth promotion in livestock
- resulting need to push strategy to ban antibiotic use in livestock beyond the EU
- availability of animal and human data across member states
- effective surveillance on appropriate and prudent use of antimicrobials in humans
Some solutions include 
- effective dissemination of guidelines on prudent use of antibiotics in animals and humans
- Antibiotic Awareness Days
- more effective coordination of R & D across industry and academic sectors on new antimicrobials, alternatives, vaccines and rapid diagnostic tests
- engagement with key health professional and patient stakeholder organisations
The new EU Action Plan on antibiotic resistance was published in June 2017, with 3 pillars supported by strengthened measures for infection prevention and control:
- making the EU Region a best practice region on AMR
- improving research and innovation
- shaping the global agenda on AMR

At the 68th World Health Assembly in May 2015, the World Health Assembly endorsed a global action plan to tackle antimicrobial resistance, including antibiotic resistance, the most urgent drug resistance trend. Carmen Pessoa da Silva from the WHO underlined the key point that if AMR remains unresolved, the global threat would be enormous both for human health as well as for the world economy. She summarised 5 key elements of WHO strategy against AMR.
1. improved awareness and understanding (annual WHO awareness week)
2. strengthen knowledge through surveillance and research 9WHO Global AMR Surveillance System - GLASS - further report due in Jan 2018 - 47 countries are fully enrolled - 25% of member states)
3. reduce incidence of infection
4. optimise use of anti-microbial medicines
5. ensure sustainable investment for R & D

The Pharmaceutical Group of the European Union represents the ~400,000 community pharmacists who dispense medicines for the ~500 million population of the European Union. Around 46 million people visit a community pharmacist every day in Europe.
James Wilkinson discussed efforts of the PGEU to educate community pharmacists and the public in rational use of antimicrobial medicines.