Giorgio Benigni, Managing Director of Becton Dickinson Italy; Marina Panfilo, Member of the Farmindustria Antimicrobial Resistance Working Group; Fabrizio Pregliasco, Health Director of Galeazzi Hospital – Sant’Ambrogio, Milan, Associate Professor of General and Applied Hygiene at the Virology Section of the Department of Biomedical Sciences for Health, University of Milan. Introduced by Camillo Rossi, Health Director of ASST Spedali Civili Brescia, Health Department of the Foundation for Subsidiarity. Moderated by Pasquale Chiarelli, General Director Hospital of Terni.

“I’m going to prescribe you an antibiotic just in case… Doctor, you don’t prescribe me any antibiotics, really?” We all take antibiotics, but to what extent is this changing an ecosystem made or interconnected components? In recent years, healthcare workers and patients together have become, certainly unconsciously, selectors of strains of microorganisms that are increasingly resistant to treatments based on weapons that are starting to be ineffective. Today, antibiotic resistance has become a major public health issue worldwide with huge implications both from a clinical point of view (increased morbidity, mortality, days of hospitalisation, possibility of resulting complications, chance of epidemics onset) as well as from an economic perspective due to the additional costs of more expensive medication and procedures, longer hospital stays and possible induced disability. Cross-cutting societal education is crucial in order to make choices based on scientific evidence.