Super bugs 50,000 call for German health insurance to boycott dirty antibiotics manufacturers “Stop superkeys, clean up your supply chains!” This is the demand of an online petition, aimed at German health insurance companies. They let antibiotics be produced in India. By companies, which sometimes do not clear their wastewater of antibiotic remnants – thus triggering the growth of resistnant germs. Yet the health insurance companies don’t see themselves responsible. read more
Super bugs More antibiotics, more resistant germs In some southern European countries, doctors prescribe three times as many antibiotics as in Northern Europe. There is no medical explanation for these dramatic differences within the EU. However, high consumption levels can be highly dangerous: because where many antibiotics are taken, resistant germs are more frequent, as recent data from the EU authority on infectious diseases shows. read more
Super bugs Projected death toll from drug-resistant superbugs ‘based on incomplete data and flawed assumptions’ An official estimate of the massive number of deaths that will be caused each year by antimicrobial resistance – and cited widely by the UN and world leaders – is “unreliable” and “undermines” the fight against superbugs, a new scientific study has warned. read more
Super bugs Sloppy hygiene in hospitals causes more deaths than road traffic accidents More than a quarter of hospitals in Germany were not meeting hygiene recommendations in 2014, according to new research by CORRECTIV and the ARD magazine “Plusminus”. The Berlin Ministry of Health puts the responsibility on federal states and individual clinics. The board of the health insurance company BKK has criticised what it calls “serious deficits”. read more
Super bugs Less than half of antibiotics used in hospitals worldwide are prescribed appropriately, confirms a comprehensive new study A new meta-analysis from a team of Cochrane scientists looked at 221 studies to assess the effectiveness and safety of interventions which try to improve how doctors prescribe antibiotics to in-patients. The analysis also identified ways of reducing unnecessary use of antibiotics in hospitals. read more
