(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 18 - Antibiotic resistance remains high in Italy in 2020: even in the first year of the pandemic, in which the consumption of these drugs has dropped, in fact, the percentages of resistance to antibiotics for the 8 pathogens under surveillance they were very high, while in some cases they decreased compared to previous years. This is what emerges from the Ar-Iss report on the national surveillance of antibiotic resistance coordinated by the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (Iss).
The 8 pathogens considered are: Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Enterococcus faecalis and Enterococcus faecium among the Gram-positive bacteria; Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Acinetobacter species among Gram-negative bacteria.
The good news is above all for Escherichia Coli: the percentage of resistance of this bacterium to third generation cephalosporins in 2020 fell by 26.4% compared to 2019, while a downward trend in the last 6 years is recorded for aminoglycosides. (from 18.4% in 2015 to 15.2% in 2020) and fluoroquinolones (from 44.4% in 2015 to 37.6% in 2020). Always for E. Coli resistance to carbapemens was confirmed to be very low (0.5%), while it increased in Pseudomonas aeruginosa species (15.9%) and in Acinetobacter spp. (80.8%).
Still among Gram-negative bacteria, in 2020 33.1% of K. pneumoniae isolates and 10.0% of E. coli isolates were found to be multi-resistant (resistant to 3rd generation cephalosporins, aminoglycosides and fluoroquinolones) , both of these values are decreasing compared to previous years.
Among Gram-positive bacteria, Enterococcus faecium is less resistant to gentamicin and streptomycin (from 74.1% in 2017 to 68.3% in 2020), while resistance to ampicillin in 2020 exceeded 90%.
Higher resistance rates (around 40%) were observed in ICUs than in other wards for both carbapenem-resistant K. pneumoniae and methicillin-resistant S. aureus.
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