Antimicrobial Resistance Awareness Week: where we stand
Antimicrobial Awareness Week, 18-24 November
The annual WHO World Antimicrobial Awareness Week (now, the Antimicrobial Resistance Awareness Week) is focused on tackling the growing problem of antimicrobial resistance. Overuse and misuse of antimicrobials increase drug resistance, posing difficulties in treating infections and leading to worse outcomes. Healthcare professionals in Intensive Care Units (ICU), where the prevalence of infections is high, are often under pressure to select the optimal treatment.
For years, ESICM has been advocating to make this issue more visible, by joining several European and global initiatives, leading trials producing guidelines and offering courses and other multimedia resources, as set out below.
We invite you to listen to Jan de Waele, ESICM President-Elect, on how to address the increasing global threat of Antimicrobial Resistance in healthcare, and join us in preventing antimicrobial resistance together!
Resources
- Last year, we launched the WebApp AIRSPACE, a practical guide to antimicrobial stewardship, for use at the bedside by intensivists wherever they work.
- We offer two free complementary learning pathways on the matter:
- Quality Improvement in Antimicrobial Stewardship. This course focuses on senior intensivists, with the main objective of helping them to develop quality and safety systems in their hospital setting to improve Antimicrobial Stewardship in Critical Care.
- Antimicrobial Stewardship for Severe Infections. This introductory course aims to increase awareness and knowledge on the importance of the topic, as well as the inter-disciplinarity required to tackle such a topic. New dates for the course in the beginning of 2024.
- Regularly organising webinars and courses on infections, including antimicrobial resistance
- Published several guidelines and contributed to the development of joint guidelines on the topic. Endorsed various surveys, trials and studies on the subject. Learn more.
Initiatives
- Since 2002, co-leading the Surviving Sepsis Campaign with the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM)
- Supporting the European Antibiotic Awareness Day
- Part of the ANTARCTICA (ANTimicrobiAl Resistance CriTIcal Care) coalition with the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID) and the World Alliance Against Antibiotic Resistance (WAAAR)
- Part of the AMR Stakeholder Network of the MEP Interest Group on Antimicrobial Resistance, coordinated by the European Public Health Alliance (EPHA)
- Collaborating with the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) in the field of infection control, notably through the Hospitals in Europe Link for Infection Control through Surveillance Network (HELICS) and the Antimicrobial Resistance in Intensive Care Units – a survey in Europe (ARISE)
- ESICM has developed a theoretical and practical training course to improve knowledge of sepsis and global infections: Sepsis Prevention and Management Course in Low- and Lower-Middle Income Countries (LMIC).