Bacterial resistance to antibiotics is growing

Due to the excessive use of antibiotics bacteria are growing increasingly resistant and pushing the mortality rates while challenging the effectiveness of modern medicine, experts have warned.

The experts gathered at the European Center for Disease Control and Prevention (ECDC) stressed that almost invincible bacteria are on the rise in eastern and southern Europe where the consumption of antibiotics is large.

- We are approaching the wall and we are not far away from it - said an ECDC expert from Stockholm.

Some bacteria are becoming resistant to all drugs and forcing us to use the antibiotics that are toxic, he explained.

According to the European survey led by Professor Monnet from Lyon, more than half (53 percent) of employees at the departments of intensive care said that, within the past 6 months, they had at least one patient resistant to all antibiotics.

Pillars of our health system are on the verge of collapse

- Without the effective antibiotics, modern medical treatments such as surgery, intensive care or transplantation, become unfeasible - ECDC director, Zsuzsanna Jakab, warns.

She emphasized that departments of intensive care and oncology have increased need for effective antibiotics.

- Columns of our health temple are collapsing. We are abusing a resource that the world must preserve for future generations - warned Otto Cars, professor from Uppsala University and an expert on this issue.

ECDC maintains that 25,000 EU deaths are caused by the super resistant bacteria. This is more than half the number of people who get killed in traffic.

No new antibiotics

This costs 1.5 billion euros annually, of which 930 million is spent in hospitals. Resistant bacteria kill tens of thousands of patients in the United States. The most jeopardized European countries are the ones in the Mediterranean, while Nordic countries are doing somewhat better.

Several countries launched campaigns to raise awareness on uselessness of antibiotics in fighting viral infections.

Most scientists are concerned about the lack of new antibiotics because laboratories do not invest in their research.