ROME, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- Antibiotic resistance showed a decreasing trend in Italy in 2018, yet remained higher than the European average, the country's National Institute of Health (ISS) said on Thursday.
"The percentage of resistance to the main classes of antibiotics remain higher than the European average, albeit within a downward trend compared to the previous years," the ISS said in a statement.
The institute specified the surveillance concerned eight specific pathogens.
"A significant decrease was observed in the percentage of isolates of Klebsiella pneumoniae resistant to Carbapenems (a class of antibiotic), which dropped from 37 percent in 2016 to 30 percent in 2018," the ISS said.
"For Escherichia coli, the percentage was slightly higher than in the previous years, although remaining very low (0.6 percent)," it added.
Less positive results concerned the percentage of E. coli cases resistant to third-generation Cephalosphorins (29 percent) and Fluoroquinolones antibiotics (42 percent).
Although slightly lower than in recent years, in fact, both percentages were still "by far higher than the European average," said ISS.
Other main results of the monitoring showed the percentage of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Acinetobacter cases resistant to Carpapenems were 16 percent and 82 percent, respectively, both diminishing.
For isolates of Staphylococcus aureus resistant to Methicillin (MRSA), the percentage in Italy remained stable at around 34 percent, the ISS noted.
On the contrary, "a significant increase" was registered in the percentage of isolates of Enterococcus faecium resistant to Vancomycin, which grew from 6 percent in 2012 to 19 percent in 2018.
A diminishing trend was observed in the percentage of Streptococcus pneumoniae cases resistant to Penicillin and to Erythromycin, the institute added without providing specific rates.
The resistance to antibiotics represents a serious health problem when showing high rates, because it significantly reduces the therapeutic options available to doctors, pushing them to use so-called "antibiotics of last resort" such as Carbapenems.
Yet, resistance to these drugs was also on the rise, and this could lead to a therapeutic impasse in certain cases, due to the lack of remaining alternatives.
The same risk was valid for the so-called "superbugs", which are bacteria that have grown resistant to several types of antibiotics.
"Unfortunately, Italy holds the record in terms of mortality due to antibiotic resistance in the European context," said Annalisa Pantosti, head of the antibiotic resistance surveillance unit of the ISS, in the statement.
"In fact, of the 33,000 deaths averagely occurring in Europe every year for infections caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria, over 10,000 happen in Italy," the researcher stressed.
Aware of the situation, Italian health authorities were implementing the National Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance 2017-2020, which the ISS described as possibly the best tool to "make activities to tackle the phenomenon more effective in national, regional and local level."
The monitoring was carried out through 98 labs all across Italy, according to the institute.
Based in Rome, the ISS is Italy's top scientific and technical body within the National Health System, and carries out research on a vary of medical fields, plus surveys, and epidemics monitoring on the base of health priorities outlined in the national health plan.
