by Giulio Valesini and Cataldo Ciccolella
Collaboration with Norma Ferrara
Images by Paolo Palermo and Fabio Martinelli
Editing by Marcelo Lippi
Graphics by Giorgio Vallati
Bacteria are everywhere, in the air we breathe, on the ground we walk on, in our intestines.
There are more bacteria in a single man’s body than there are men on planet earth. Thanks to bacteria we have leavened bread, beer and wine. Because of the bacteria, the pathogenic ones, we get sick with tetanus or gastroenteritis. We live in a kind of armed peace, but for about a century with the improvement of clinical hygiene and the discovery of penicillin, the first of the antibiotics, it seemed that we had learned to keep them at bay. Now the balance is about to break. Inappropriate prescribing or excessive use, poor hygienic conditions in hospitals, the release of contaminants into the environment: thanks to our mistakes we have trained them to become stronger. And today a new epidemic is advancing silently: in the same year in which Covid took its first steps, over 1.3 million people died from antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections worldwide. Estimates predict 10 million deaths a year around 2050. In Italy, about 15,000 deaths are recorded every year, but the real numbers are much higher. Why are we bringing up the rear in the fight against antibiotic resistance in Europe? Report will investigate the role of doctors and pharmaceutical companies. In addition, there is a national plan against superbugs that has not been funded for years. And when 40 million euros arrived to get him started, the Speranza-led Ministry of Health was unable to spend it. Report has internal documents that reveal what happened.
The study commissioned by Epfia on the convenience of vouchers to support the search for new antibiotics
The statement of the pharmaceutical company Plivia