MEPs call for tougher controls on antibiotics
In order to fight growing resistance to bacteria
The European Parliament (EP) has called for tighter controls on the use of antimicrobials, including antibiotics, in the European Union (EU), citing the need to fight growing resistance to bacteria.
MEPs referred to ‘virtually untreatable ‘superbugs’ [that] claim the lives of around 25,000 people in the EU each year’, a figure they fear could grow.
The EP’s non-binding recommendations for the European Commission and member states called for Brussels to invest further in pharmaceutical studies on antibiotics, with the resolution arguing that research has ‘produced few new antibiotics in recent decades’.
The EP also called for proactive information campaigns for the public to prevent them asking doctors for antibiotics when they are not needed, for instance to treat viruses such as colds.
The motion also called for a ban on giving antibiotics to livestock as a prophylactic to ward off potential disease, strengthening the existing prohibition on using antibiotics to promote animal growth.