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World HAI Forum: Global call to action to fight antibiotic resistance

This thematic issue from Antimicrobial Resistance and Infection Control features an overview and summary of the presented posters (including a link to the forum website with PDFs of the posters), a selection of the excellent presentations of the World HAI Forum as full articles and, last but not least, The Pensieres Antibiotic Resistance Call to Action: Ready for a world without antibiotics?

In June 2011, over 70 international experts in medicine, infectious diseases, microbiology and epidemiology gathered at the Fondation Mérieux's Conference Center in Annecy (France) for the third edition of the World HAI Forum on healthcare-associated infections. Forum participants called upon national and international health authorities, policymakers, the medical and veterinary communities, industry, and the general public to take action to avoid an impending public health catastrophe caused by the emergence and spread of bacteria that are resistant to all antibiotics. While research to discover novel antibiotics has slowed to a virtual standstill, bacterial resistance has increased due to the massive use and misuse of antibiotics, not only for human health, but also for animals. The treatment of certain common infections is becoming difficult and the success of immunosuppressive therapies and surgical interventions (organ transplants, cardiac surgery), which are associated with a high risk of bacterial infection, could be compromised.

To the Forum experts, the emergence of pan-resistant NDM-1 bacteria and epidemic of multidrug-resistant E. coli infections currently in Europe should be taken as a major public health warning, indicating that a new era of antimicrobial resistance has begun. This must lead to a global awakening: the protection of antibiotics has now entered the sphere of sustainable development. In a continuation of calls to action and proposals made by major national and international organizations (WHO, ECDC, IDSA, CDC, etc.), the Forum's participants identified priority action areas to fight bacterial resistance and recommended 12 concrete actions to be implemented, in the short to mid-term, to effectively address this serious problem. 


View all collections published in Antimicrobial Resistance and Infection Control.

  1. Carbapenem resistant Enterobacteriaceae is a worldwide threat, with increasing prevalence in many countries. Restricted usage of higher end antibiotics, especially carbapenem is of great importance in tackling th...

    Authors: A Ghafur, V Nagvekar, S Thilakavathy, K Chandra, R Gopalakrishnan and PR Vidyalakshmi
    Citation: Antimicrobial Resistance and Infection Control 2012 1:29
    Content type: Research Published on:

  5. Resistance to antibiotics has increased dramatically over the past few years and has now reached a level that places future patients in real danger. Microorganisms such as Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoni...

    Authors: Jean Carlet, Vincent Jarlier, Stephan Harbarth, Andreas Voss, Herman Goossens and Didier Pittet
    Citation: Antimicrobial Resistance and Infection Control 2012 1:11
    Content type: Editorial Published on:

  7. Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris (APHP), the largest public health care institution in France (38 hospitals, 23,000 beds, serving 11.6 millions inhabitants) launched in 1993 a long term programme to contr...

    Authors: Sandra Fournier, Christian Brun-Buisson and Vincent Jarlier
    Citation: Antimicrobial Resistance and Infection Control 2012 1:9
    Content type: Research Published on:

  8. Two MRSA surveillance components exist within the German national nosocomial infection surveillance system KISS: one for the whole hospital (i.e. only hospital based data and no rates for individual units) and...

    Authors: Petra Gastmeier, Frank Schwab, Iris Chaberny and Christine Geffers
    Citation: Antimicrobial Resistance and Infection Control 2012 1:8
    Content type: Research Published on:

  9. The Scottish Antimicrobial Prescribing Group (SAPG) was established by the Scottish Government in 2008 to lead the first national initiative to actively address antimicrobial stewardship. Healthcare associated...

    Authors: Dilip Nathwani, Jacqueline Sneddon, Andrea Patton and William Malcolm
    Citation: Antimicrobial Resistance and Infection Control 2012 1:7
    Content type: Short report Published on:

  11. Hospital-associated infections (HAIs) are associated with a considerable burden of disease and direct costs greater than $17 billion. The pathogens that cause the majority of serious HAIs are Enterococcus faecium...

    Authors: Seunghyug Kwon, Marin L Schweizer and Eli N Perencevich
    Citation: Antimicrobial Resistance and Infection Control 2012 1:5
    Content type: Research Published on:

  12. By analysing the data of the intensive care unit (ICU) component of the German national nosocomial infection surveillance system (KISS) during the last ten years, we have observed a steady increase in the MRSA...

    Authors: Petra Gastmeier, Frank Schwab, Michael Behnke and Christine Geffers
    Citation: Antimicrobial Resistance and Infection Control 2012 1:3
    Content type: Short report Published on: