Superbugs Kill More Than 30,000 Europeans Every Year

According to the latest study on antibiotic resistance mortality by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, antibiotic-resistant bacteria caused the deaths of around 31,000 to 39,000 people each year across 29 European countries between 2016 and 2020. European researchers are warning of the danger of over dependence on antibiotics in human and veterinary medicine, which is driving the increase in bacterial resistance to antibiotics.

The following chart gives an estimate of the number of deaths attributable to "superbugs" in relation to the population. It shows that Greece, Italy, Romania and Cyprus are among the European countries most seriously affected by this problem, with annual mortality rates of between 10 and 20 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants (2016 to 2020). The lowest mortality rates on the continent were recorded in the Netherlands and Norway (2 per 100,000 inhabitants).