Antibiotic resistance committee met three times

A high-level Government committee set up to lead the fight against growing antibiotic resistance has met just three times in two years.

The National Interdepartmental Antimicrobial Resistance Consultative Committee was heralded on its establishment in November 2014 as an "important step in developing a unified approach" by Government to the issue.

The rise in antimicrobial resistance was described as one of the greatest potential threats to human and animal health.

The committee, which includes officials from the Department of Health and the Department of Agriculture, the HSE and scientific experts, met in March and June 2015, and last April. A further meeting is planned later this month.

Minister for Health Simon Harris, in a statement issued yesterday to mark European Antibiotic Awareness Day, said the committee had a clear role and mandate across the human and animal health sectors and was working on a national action plan against antimicrobial resistance in line with EU and World Health Organisation requirements.

Resistant to antibiotics

Every year, 25,000 people die in Europe from bugs that are resistant to antibiotics and someone somewhere in the world dies every 10 minutes because antibiotics don’t work, the HSE warned.

Antibiotic consumption is falling in many European countries but rising in Ireland. "Misuse of antibiotics threatens to undermine the progress that has been made in medicine over recent decades. The overuse of antibiotics makes patients less likely to respond to treatment. A casual attitude to antibiotics is damaging their effectiveness and we are seeing an alarming rise in infections caused by so called 'superbugs'," according to the HSE clinical lead for preventing healthcare-associated infection, Dr Rob Cunney.

He urged the public not to use antibiotics for colds and flu, to take antibiotics exactly as prescribed and to dispose of leftover drugs by returning them to a pharmacy.