European Antibiotic Awareness Day: a five-year perspective of Europe-wide actions to promote prudent use of antibiotics

S Earnshaw; G Mancarella; A Mendez; B Todorova; A P Magiorakos; E Possenti; M Stryk; S Gilbro; H Goossens; B Albiger; D L Monnet; on behalf of the European Antibiotic Awareness Day Technical Advisory Committee; on behalf of the European Antibiotic Awareness Day Collaborative Group

doi:10.2807/1560-7917.ES2014.19.41.20928

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European Antibiotic Awareness Day: a five-year perspective of Europe-wide actions to promote prudent use of antibiotics
S Earnshaw^1,2 , G Mancarella^1,2 , A Mendez¹ , B Todorova¹ , A P Magiorakos¹ , E Possenti¹ , M Stryk¹ , S Gilbro¹ , H Goossens^3,4,5 , B Albiger¹ , D L Monnet¹ , on behalf of the European Antibiotic Awareness Day Technical Advisory Committee⁶ , on behalf of the European Antibiotic Awareness Day Collaborative Group⁷
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Affiliations: ¹ European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, Stockholm, Sweden ² These authors contributed equally to this work ³ Laboratory of Medical Microbiology, Vaccine and Infectious Disease Institute, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium ⁴ European Antibiotic Awareness Day Technical Advisory Committee ⁵ European Antibiotic Awareness Day Collaborative Group ⁶ Members of the Technical Advisory Committee are listed at the end of the article ⁷ Members of the Collaborative Group are listed at the end of the article

Correspondence:
G Mancarella
Giovanni.Mancarella ecdc.europa.eu
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Citation style for this article: Earnshaw S, Mancarella G, Mendez A, Todorova B, Magiorakos A P, Possenti E, Stryk M, Gilbro S, Goossens H, Albiger B, Monnet D L, on behalf of the European Antibiotic Awareness Day Technical Advisory Committee, on behalf of the European Antibiotic Awareness Day Collaborative Group. European Antibiotic Awareness Day: a five-year perspective of Europe-wide actions to promote prudent use of antibiotics. Euro Surveill. 2014;19(41):pii=20928. https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES2014.19.41.20928 Received: 31 Oct 2013

Abstract

Following the European Union (EU) Council Recommendation on prudent use of antimicrobial agents in human medicine in 2001, and the success of national campaigns, i.e. Belgium and France, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) decided to establish the European Antibiotic Awareness Day (EAAD) on 18 November as platform to support national campaigns across Europe. This article provides an overview of EAAD tools, materials, and activities developed during the first five years. It shows that EAAD has been successful due to good cooperation between ECDC and national institutions, strong political and stakeholder support and evidence-based development of campaign materials. EAAD has provided a platform for pre-existing national campaigns and encouraged similar campaigns to develop where neither political support had been secured, nor financial support had been available. As a result, participating countries have continuously expressed strong support for ECDC to continue its work on EAAD. This has been endorsed by a steadily increasing number of countries participating and the growing interest of varied professional and stakeholder organisations. We conclude that EAAD should continue to act as catalyst for discussion and as mechanism to raise awareness of the public and prescribers about prudent use of antibiotics.