Proposals for a more effective antibiotic policy in Belgium

KCE Reports 311C (2019)

The inappropriate use of antibiotics has led to an increasing resistance to bacteria, to the extent that all the benefits of these drugs risk being wiped out. To tackle this resistance problem, the prudent use of antibiotics is a priority. And because human, animal and environmental health are closely linked, this problem must be addressed through a “One Health” approach in which the different sectors collaborate.

In Belgium, we use more antibiotics than the European average in the ambulatory sector (especially in general medicine), in care homes and in the veterinary sector. The KCE has put forward 21 recommendations to improve this situation. The first of these recommendations is to develop a national “One Health” action plan to tackle antimicrobial resistance, involving all the relevant stakeholders in both human and veterinary medicine.

Other recommendations include strengthening “antibiotic stewardship” in acute care hospitals and developing it in the ambulatory sector and in nursing homes. The KCE also suggests authorising pharmacists to sell the exact number of tablets required for the prescribed treatment. This would prevent people from keeping “leftovers”, with the associated risks of self-medication and environmental pollution. Moreover, the use of antibiotics in domestic animals also warrants greater attention: at present, there are few data on the subject, yet we know that they too can transmit resistant bacteria to their owners, and vice versa.