Between 2018 and 2020, nearly 20 000 surgical site infections (SSIs) were reported from a total of over 1.2 million surgical procedures in 13 EU/EEA countries participating in ECDC-coordinated SSI surveillance. Over 2 500 hospitals are part of this surveillance network.
On European Antibiotic Awareness Day, ECDC publishes the results of two point-prevalence surveys of healthcare-associated infections and antimicrobial use in hospitals and in long-term care facilities in the EU/EEA.
Antibiotic resistance is a threat to public health. It compromises the treatment of infected patients, in particular that of the most severely ill patients. Increasingly, intensive care physicians in Europe are confronted with infections caused by bacteria for which limited or no adequate treatment options are available.