The fight against antibiotic consumption in humans has stagnated in the last ten years in Spain. Although until last year it had been possible to reach a 17% decrease in the consumption of these medicationsthis percentage has now been reduced to 13.5%, according to updated data from the National Plan against Antibiotic Resistance (PRAN), presented by the Ministry of Health this Monday.
For all these reasons, the Secretary of State for Health, Javier Padilla, has urged to continue working on “reducing the quantity of antibiotics”, but also on “improving quality and measuring the impact on sepsis rates“, an extreme immune response by the body to a generalized infectiondue to the presence of pathogenic microorganisms or toxins in the blood. Thus, the Health goal for 2030 is reduce antimicrobial consumption by 27% in daily doses per 1,000 inhabitants/day between 2019 and 2030both in hospitals and in the community.
This same brake has also occurred in the consumption of antibiotics in animal health, which has been unemployed since last year in a reduction of 69.5%. The challenge now in this sense is to achieve a 50% decrease in sales of veterinary medical products, taking 2018 data as a starting point.
Despite this slowdown, Spain continues to be the first country in Europe in terms of reducing the consumption of veterinary antibiotics and the third in human health. The director of the Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products (AEMPS), María Jesús Lamas, has celebrated these data because “Spain was second in the use of antibiotics in human and animal health when the PRAN was launched in 2014.” “Then we were aware of the increasingly frequent antimicrobial resistance. This went beyond the clinical scope to see that what was happening was a threat that could put health, social progress and the economy in check“, Lamas explained.
Thus, the director of the AEMPS has indicated that the end of the pandemic meant a “resurgence” of antimicrobials. “Although in Spain we continue to have consumption below 2019, this does not happen in all States. This can only serve as a stimulus to continue working,” he said.
According to the Ministry of Health, Spain is “in a position to be able to meet the reduction objectives”, so it must “continue working to reduce and ration consumption.” “The main objectives are to implement a ‘One Health’ vision, improve social perception and achieve behavioral changes, in the person who consumes antibiotics, but also in the person who prescribes them.”“, according to Padilla.
Regarding the lack of supply of some antibiotics, Lamas has indicated that the National Health System is carrying out “a selective price review of strategic antibiotics whose lack has consequences on health.” For the director of the AEMPS, “Working to strengthen the supply portfolio of old antibiotics is essential”.
Antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest public health challenges globally. Every year, millions of infections become more difficult to treat due to the loss of effectiveness of drugs that, for decades, have been the first line of defense. All of this puts people’s lives at risk, and affects health systems, animal production, the environment and, ultimately, the global economy.
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