Permanent microbiology services could roll out to all hospitals to enable the identification of antibiotic resistance and sensitivity levels and enable physicians to make the most appropriate choices. And again: promote initiatives that reduce the consumption of antibiotics in the ward, expand the training of healthcare personnel, create personalized drug packages and avoid self-prescriptions.
These are the proposals contained in some motions presented to the Chamber of Deputies on the initiatives to be implemented in relation to the phenomenon of resistance to antibiotics.
An undoubtedly niche topic, but of absolute national and international importance. According to data released by the report «Review on Antimicrobial Resistance», published in 2016, by 2050, antibiotic-resistant infections could be the leading cause of death in the world, even overtaking cancer. Furthermore, scientists have already discovered a super-bacterium resistant to any type of antibiotic.
Finding a solution to these problems, according to the UN, will soon become "the greatest challenge of contemporary medicine" and the representatives of the General Assembly have signed the document which commits the 193 member countries to implement policies and initiatives to counter the 'antibiotic resistance.
Returning to Italy, according to the Mantero motion (M5S), around 700 deaths a year would already occur today due to antibiotic resistance. Furthermore, according to what was declared by the ISS «The improper use of antibiotics has meant that today their efficacy is no longer a guaranteed asset, as we have long been accustomed to thinking, and that those available today must be better defended, as a "non-renewable resource".
Concrete measures are therefore needed to combat the phenomenon and ensure that the antibiotics currently on the market are used correctly. This is why we must focus above all on primary care deriving from the prescriptions of general practitioners.
It should be taken into consideration that, according to the data, a higher number of doses would be consumed in the South than in the North, without a real scientific justification. Furthermore, as far as hospitals are concerned, according to experts, there would be many patients receiving broad-spectrum antibiotics that they would not need. To remedy this, the Mantero motion proposes to push on microbiology laboratories which play "a fundamental role for the correct management of antibiotics in healthcare facilities".
