Infection prevention to control AMR: how to pave the way forward ?

A silent pandemic is hitting worldwide. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is responsible for approximately 35,000 deaths annually in the EU/EEA. By 2050, this number will hit 90,000. With no time to waste, a multiple stakeholder approach is needed to develop evidence-based public health strategies to tackle AMR and meet the 2030 targets. Achieving such targets needs a strong and efficient implementation of different complementary approaches beyond development of antibiotics in the fight against AMR, such as better diagnostics, antimicrobial stewardship programs and prevention of infections. While strong efforts are made in the hospital setting with improving diagnostics, stewardship plans and infection control measures, there are still important gaps in the community setting in managing overuse and misuse of antibiotics in treating very common infections (respiratory and urinary) and thus controlling development of AMR.

Infection prevention is the first step in addressing the overuse and misuse of antibiotics. Today, policies or regulations on infection prevention and control (IPC) focus on WASH (water sanitation and hygiene) and sometimes also on routine vaccination programs for at-risk populations. However, complementary strategies to prevent infections are already available or in development, like prophylactic vaccines, immunotherapies priming innate immunity, passive immunization, and decolonization approaches preventing transmission and infection.

It would be important to better define the role of these complementary strategies in the fight against AMR.