17/10/2010 - The European Medicines Agency supports the European Antibiotic Awareness Day taking place on Thursday 18 November 2010.
This day is an annual European public health initiative that aims to raise awareness about the threat to public health of antibiotic resistance and prudent antibiotic use.
The objective of the European Antibiotic Awareness Day in 2010 is to support efforts at national level to reduce unnecessary antibiotic use in hospitals through the development and dissemination of educational materials promoting prudent antibiotic use.
In the field of antibiotics, the Agency's main role is to evaluate applications for the authorisation of antibiotic medicines, both for humans and for animals, and to ensure that their conditions of use are in line with prudent and responsible use.
The Agency is concerned about the increasing levels of resistance to antibiotics in humans and animals and is engaged in a number of initiatives aiming to tackle this problem. For more information, see the special topic page on antimicrobial resistance.