European surveillance shows north-south divide in resistant bacteria

Most countries in northern Europe—with the exception of the United Kingdom—have much lower rates of antibiotic resistant bacteria than southern European countries, the latest figures from the European Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance System show.

The European surveillance system is a network of national surveillance systems that monitors drug resistance in bacteria reported by centres in 15 countries in Europe, as well as Israel. It was set up by the European Commission in 1998.

The latest figures, for the first two quarters of 2001, show that the lowest rates of methicillin resistance in Staphylococcus aureus isolates were found in northern European countries, including Iceland, Sweden, Denmark, and the Netherlands, …