One out of ten healthy Norwegians are the carriers of deadly bacteria

Illustration.Bacteria.Photo: pixabay.com

Every tenth healthy Norwegian has antibiotic-resistant bacteria in his or her body, according to a new survey from the Institute of Public Health (FHI).

This is the first time the department has mapped the prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in healthy Norwegians, according to the newspaper Nationen. Technical director Ulf Dahle in FHI is concerned about the finds.
– We would not want people to be anxious, but we have to understand the importance of preventive hygiene precautions. Resistant bacteria can cause difficult infections, and currently a significant proportion of Norwegians carry these bacteria, he said.

FHI has tested 300 healthy people from across the country in the. 7 percent of them had ESBL bacteria in the gut, while another 5 percent were resistant to the antibiotics type ciprofloxacin.
In EU / EEA about 25,000 people die annually because of antibiotic resistance. Dahle thinks Norwegians mainly “catch” the resistant bacteria on trips abroad.
– It is unlikely that the Norwegian food is the main source of the resistant bacteria that are found in healthy people in Norway. If it were so we would have found it in more people,the  technical director says.

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today