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Doctors, Dentists and Veterinarians welcome the new European One Health action plan against Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR)
The Standing Committee of European Doctors (CPME), the Council of the European Dentists (CED) and the Federation of Veterinarians of Europe (FVE) warmly welcomes the new European action plan against Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR). It is especially appreciated that this second plan recognises that human health, animal health and the environment are interconnected and that the importance of the ‘One Health’ approach is emphasised in the proposed actions.
The three organisations strongly believe that it is only by working together, showing strong leadership and taking full responsibility, that it will be possible to turn the tide, raise awareness on this health threat and engage the whole society in responsible use of antimicrobials, to preserve the efficacy of antibiotics.
Dr Jacques de Haller, CPME President, said “Awareness-raising and education are keys to change behaviours and encourage the responsible use of antibiotics in both human and animal health. The AMR threat requires a shared responsibility of all actors, including of course healthcare professionals. Prescribers should be encouraged and provided with appropriate tools to make evidence-based prescription and to avoid blind prescriptions. Surveillance systems should become active and share best practices and comparable data with prescribers”.
Dr Marco Landi, CED President, states: “The CED recognises that dentistry will suffer a significant crisis by the loss of antibiotics as effective agents in the treatment of human infection. It is therefore essential in terms of both public and oral health that dentists only prescribe antibiotics when they are necessary and appropriate and that patients are helped to understand that antibiotics do not cure toothache.”
Dr Rafael Laguens, FVE President, reiterated “People and animals share the same environment, interact continuously and are affected in similar ways. Antimicrobial resistance is one of the major challenges we face in our globalized world. It is evident that we need a holistic approach and analysis to understand the real mechanisms of antimicrobial resistance and identify the critical control points. We need to ensure science-based decisions and coordination of our actions in order to tackle efficiently the challenge of antimicrobial resistance worldwide.”
The new European action plan against AMR of the European Commission is structured around 3 pillars:
1st pillar: Making the EU a best practice region
CPME, CED and FVE believe that EU can be a best practice region and call upon the European Commission to focus on assisting countries, which face greater difficulties in managing antimicrobial resistance. The sharing of experience, best practice and allocation of necessary resources to cover particular needs should be ensured for all Member States. Surveillance systems should be strengthened by improving the data collection but also by building an effective two-way communication.
2nd pillar: Boosting research, development and innovation
CPME, CED and FVE call out for more rapid, cheap and reliable diagnostic tests to become available to doctors, dentists and veterinarians. Surveillance systems should be enlarged to cover also results from these pen-side diagnostics. Remuneration and reimbursement schemes should facilitate the use of appropriate diagnosis tests before any antibiotic prescription in human and animal health.
3rd pillar: Shaping the global agenda on Antimicrobial Resistance
CPME, CED and FVE call for the European Union to show strong leadership at global level. The EU should intensify cooperation with other parts in the fight against antimicrobial resistance by exchanging good practices. Additionally, data collection and analysis on antimicrobial resistance and antibiotics consumption in other parts of the world should be encouraged. Europe is unique in having an extensive and transparent analysis, as presented in the Joint Interagency Antimicrobial Consumption and Resistance Analysis (JIACRA) Report, which second report will is planned to be published mid-July. This should be an example for other parts of the world to follow.
CPME, CED and FVE call upon all EU Member States to work in close collaboration with the prescribers of antibiotics - doctors, dentists and veterinarians - to ensure efficient, practical and achievable goals in their national action plans as well as proper implementation of the European action plan against AMR.
Notes to editors:
The three organisations have for many years enjoyed a close collaboration setting out an inter-professional co-operation framework to jointly act in recognition of the ‘One Health’ concept.i
The Standing Committee of European Doctors (CPME) represents national medical associations across Europe. We are committed to contributing the medical profession’s point of view to EU institutions and European policy-making through pro-active cooperation on a wide range of health and healthcare related issues.
- We believe the best possible quality of health and access to healthcare should be a reality for everyone.
- We see the patient-doctor relationship as fundamental in achieving these objectives.
- We are committed to interdisciplinary cooperation among doctors and with other health professions.
- We strongly advocate a ‘health in all policies’ approach to encourage cross-sectorial awareness for and action on the determinants of health.
CPME www.cpme.eu
For further information, please contact: Annabel Seebohm – annabel.seebohm@cpme.eu
The Council of European Dentists (CED) is a European not-for-profit association representing over 340,000 dental practitioners across Europe through 32 national dental associations and chambers in 30 European countries. Established in 1961 to advise the European Commission on matters relating to the dental profession, the CED aims to promote high standards on oral healthcare and dentistry with effective patient-safety centred professional practice, and to contribute to safeguarding the protection of public health. The CED is registered in the Transparency Register with the ID number 4885579968-84.
CED www.cedentists.eu
For further information, please contact: Nina Brandelet-Bernot ced@cedentists.eu
The Federation of Veterinarians of Europe (FVE) is an umbrella organisation of 44 veterinary organisations from 38 European countries, representing a total of around 240.000 veterinarians. FVE strives
- to promote animal health, animal welfare and public health across Europe
- place veterinarians in the center of sustainable agriculture, keeping of animals and safe food for people
- make sure veterinarians can do their jobs well in the benefit of the society and people understand our huge contribution
- work through strong intra-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary alliances to ensure that we are part of the solution to the challenges that humanity faces
FVE www.fve.org
For further information, please contact: Jan Vaarten – info@fve.org
i) CPME, CED and FVE joint letter calling for interdisciplinary training and creating a culture of ‘One Health’ in medical, dental and veterinary education in Europe is available here.
The CPME and FVE Memorandum of Understanding is available here. | 
