News | RIVM

Antibiotics policy for severe streptococcal infections lowers risk of transmission within families

Giving antibiotics to family members of a person who has a severe and possibly invasive Group A Strep infection (iGAS) helps prevent them from becoming ill as well. Since January 2023, all family members of a patient with iGAS are offered antibiotics. This policy has lowered the risk of transmission within families by more than 80%.

Antimicrobial resistance on the rise in specific bacteria

Specific pathogenic bacteria in the Netherlands showed increasing resistance in 2024. In particular, bacteria that cause urinary tract infections and skin infections were more frequently resistant to medicines than in previous years.

Continued need to focus attention on antimicrobial resistance and antibiotics policy

The percentage of bacteria in the Netherlands that are insensitive to antibiotics was about the same in 2023 as in previous years.

Number of tuberculosis patients in the Netherlands increased in 2023 compared to 2022

In 2023, 710 people in the Netherlands were diagnosed with tuberculosis (TB). This was 12 per cent more than in 2022, when there were 634. In 2023, 471 patients had pulmonary TB. Of these 417 patients, 213 had open TB – the most contagious type.

Antibiotic use and antimicrobial resistance remain stable

Antibiotic resistance in the Netherlands remained stable in 2021 compared with the five previous years. This is evident from the 2022 annual NethMap/MARAN report.

In beeld twee handen van een vrouw die 2 antibiotica pillen neemt

Can healthy gut microbes protect us against antibiotic-resistant bacteria?

It is largely assumed within the scientific community that a healthy intestinal microbiome can provide resistance against the settling, growth and multiplication of antibiotic-resistan

Sewage treatment workers not more likely to carry antibiotic-resistant bacteria

Employees at sewage and wastewater treatment plants in the Netherlands and Germany are not more likely to carry antibiotic-resistant bacteria than other people.

Loopbrug rioolwaterzuiveringsinstallatie

Unie van Waterschappen

Antimicrobial resistance in the Netherlands stable in 2020

In 2020, the year of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, resistant bacteria were not found more often in patients in the Netherlands than before the outbreak.

New data on antimicrobial resistance in Europe

New data on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in European countries is now available in the sixth annual report of the Central Asian and European Surveillance of Antimicrobial Resistance