An Italian Medicines Agency (AIFA) report, published on the FarmaciaVirtuale website, points out that this nation’s population is the most affected by antibiotic resistance among the European Union (EU) countries.

The data are based on the latest surveillance report on this scourge published by the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), which warns that, if the trend continues, it will lead cause of death in Italy by 2050, surpassing cardiovascular diseases and cancer.

The specialized publication stated that about 35,000 people die each year from antibiotic-resistant infections in Europe, while one in five bacterial infections is already drug-resistant.

The study showed that annual deaths could rise to 390,000 in the next 25 years, requiring the utmost attention from academia and the pharmaceutical industry to address this threat by developing new, more effective drugs.

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