In Italy, economic damages related to the emergence of antibiotic resistance amount to 2.4 billion euros a year, with 2.7 million beds occupied due to resistant infections. Most importantly, super-bacteria are responsible for the loss of as many as 12,000 lives a year. This is a hefty bill, too much, especially if we read it in comparison with what happens at the European level, where there are a total of 670 thousand infections and 33 thousand deaths a year due to treatment-resistant bacteria. The annual cost of antibiotic resistance in EU countries amounts to about 11.7 billion euros, or 24 euros per capita. "Although antibiotic resistance is a global emergency, the Italian situation is particularly critical," says Robert Nisticò, President of the Italian Medicines Agency. "In our country the spread of antibiotic resistance and the consumption of antibiotics are increasing, more and more than the European average, with frightening costs both in terms of human lives and economic damage," concludes Nisticò. “Citizens must do more by avoiding taking antibiotics arbitrarily, and physicians must also do more by paying more attention to the appropriateness of prescriptions”.