Antibiotic resistance is now a public health priority both for our country and globally. Italy, specifically, is particularly affected by this phenomenon, which places it at the top of Europe in terms of high prevalence of resistant bacterial strains and mortality attributable to antibiotic resistance.
The Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS, the National Institute of Health in Italy) has different surveillance systems, from that relating to national surveillance of antibiotic resistance (AR-ISS) to the surveillance of bacteraemia by carbapenemase-producing enterobacteria. We recall in this regard how some gram-negative bacteria, especially Klebsiella pneumoniae, present today a threat to fragile patients hospitalized in care facilities, from hospital wards (in particular intensive care units) to Long-Term Care Facilities. The contrast to the antibiotic resistance, whose lines are declined within the national plan developed by the Ministry of Health, is therefore also a priority for the ISS.