The consumption of antibiotics by the Maltese public outside of hospitals has dropped over the past five years but the island tops the list in Europe in terms of their use in hospitals, European data shows.
The figures, published yesterday by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, show that in 2016 consumption in the general community decreased by a fourth.
The centre uses a World Health Organization statistical method to calculate consumption by looking at the number of antibiotic doses (known as defined daily doses or DDDs) consumed per 1,000 inhabitants per day.
According to the data, released to coincide with the 10th European Antibiotic Awareness Day, consumption in the community in Malta dropped from 22.5 DDDs in 2012 to 16.4 per 1,000 inhabitants per day in 2016.
This figure is below the European average of 21.9 doses.
However, antibiotic consumption in hospitals increased, placing Malta at the top last year, with 2.9 doses per 1,000 people per day vs the European average of 2.1 doses per 1,000 inhabitants per day. This ranges from 1.0 in The Netherlands to 2.9 in Malta.
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