Contact person
Ulla Elofsson
Assoc. Professor
Contact Ulla
Antibiotic Smart Sweden
Antibiotic Smart Sweden is a national innovation milieu where we work towards a common mission – a society where everyone helps to antibiotics working and saving lives.
Objective
The goal of the initiative is to create a long-term innovation environment where different types of actors can work together to strengthen existing and create new initiatives in the areas of infection prevention, responsible antibiotic use, good monitoring and knowledge dissemination. In an antibiotic-smart Sweden, citizens have knowledge of the consequences of antibiotic resistance and how they can act to reduce the spread of infection and to use antibiotics correctly, where all municipalities and regions work with improvement projects based on awareness of infection prevention and sustainable antibiotic use, and where we import and export antibiotic-smart working methods. An antibiotic-smart Sweden understands that access to effective antibiotics is part of sustainable development and includes both the actors who are already active in the field as well as those who would need to get started - all to prepare for the future.
Challenges
Antibiotics are a prerequisite for our ability to prevent and treat infections, but also for modern healthcare in general. Antibiotic resistance is a growing problem worldwide, an increase that is accelerating as a result of systematic misuse and overuse in both animals and humans combined with insufficient preventive measures and the spread of infection. In the EU alone, 33,000 people die each year due to antibiotic resistance, and globally the corresponding figure is over 1.2 million. Antibiotic resistance is not only a threat to human health, but also to animal health and to a sustainable society.
Solution
As antibiotic resistance is a complex societal challenge, we all need to help each other to take on this challenge - we therefore need to be more and do more. With the vision of an antibiotic-smart Sweden as a benchmark, we want to invite more actors to work to strengthen the conditions for antibiotics to continue to be effective in curing infections. We need to create new, innovative efforts and ways of working while making use of everything that is already being done around Sweden and the world. Target groups for the efforts are currently residents, municipalities and regions and their activities (preschool, school, care for the elderly and disabled, water and waste-water mangagement organizations, hospitals and primary care) as well as international actors. However, we are constantly working to include more target groups.
Summary
Project name
Antibiotic Smart Sweden
Status
Completed
RISE role in project
Innovation milieu leader
Project start
Duration
2025-05-14
Total budget
25 million SEK
Partner
The Public Health Agency of Sweden, Strama, ReAct, Region Gävleborg, Region Jönköping, Lund Municipality, Region Stockholm, Tanum Municipality, Region Västra Götaland
Funders
Project website
Coordinators
The Public Health Agency of Sweden
Project members
Ulla Elofsson Elin Kusoffsky Elin Flodin Ann-Sofie Mårtensson Nadine Kraupner Lina Nyström Marion Hutinel
Supports the UN sustainability goals
1. No poverty
3. Good health and well-being
6. Clean water and sanitation
11. Sustainable cities and communities
14. Life below water
15. Life on land
