Activity
Mission
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) represents a major threat to public health. Resistant microorganisms can spread between humans, animals, and the environment. Combating AMR therefore requires a coordinated and multidisciplinary approach based on the One Health principle.
In recent years, Belgium has addressed this challenge through the National One Health Action Plan against Antimicrobial Resistance (NAP AMR) 2020–2024. This plan brought together actions across human health, animal health, and the environment within a single national and coordinated framework.
The new NAP AMR 2026–2030 is currently being prepared. A draft of the new action plan was submitted for public consultation in early 2026. The comments and suggestions received are being taken into account in the further development and final political validation of the plan.
Since its establishment in 1999, the Belgian Antibiotic Policy Coordination Committee (BAPCOC) has been committed to combating antimicrobial resistance. Together with its working groups and other partners, BAPCOC supports the development and implementation of policies on antimicrobial resistance within the human healthcare sector.
For NAP-AMR actions related to reducing antibiotic use in the livestock sector, please refer to AMCRA.
The General Directorate for the Environment of the Federal Public Service for Public Health coordinates the environmental actions of the action plan
THEMES
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NAP-AMR: The Belgian national action plan "One Health" for combating antimicrobial resistance. |
⇒ For any information on this NAP-AMR, please refer to this page. |
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HOST: Hospital Outbreak Support Teams |
⇒ For any information on this pilot project, please refer to the HOST page |
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Ambulatory Practice : Guidelines and e-learnings |
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Awareness campaign |
⇒More information here |
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Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) |
NEWS
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Hand hygiene: the 10th campaign is launched with the slogan: "Use gloves rationally, it's essential." Discover all the materials and useful information on our website. |
⇒ Campaign 2023-2024 (FR/NL) |
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Discover the numerous initiatives implemented by BAPCOC in the digital magazine BeCare. |
⇒ BeCare (FR/NL) |
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Consult the NOSO info bulletin on the prevention and control of healthcare-associated infections |
⇒NOSO info (FR/NL)
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In the late 1990s, Belgium ranked among the top 3 European countries with the highest antibiotic consumption. This overconsumption poses a threat to public health. In response, Belgium took action in 1999 by establishing the Belgian Antibiotic Policy Coordination Commission (BAPCOC). BAPCOC is a federally-based, scientifically-driven body that promotes rational antibiotic consumption in Belgium and works to combat the rise of antibiotic resistance.
Tasks & Competences
The various working groups of BAPCOC fulfill the following missions:
- Share expertise and formulate recommendations on the national policy for the prevention and control of infections and the use of antibiotics.
- Support the implementation of the NAP AMR.
- Ensure coherence between actions and centralize communication towards field actors.
Organogram
The multidisciplinary committee is composed of scientists, general practitioners, microbiologists, hospital hygienists, infectious disease specialists, pharmacists, and decision-makers from public administrations. The committee may enlist the support of Sciensano for scientific assistance.
The Support Team consists of employees from the Federal Public Service for Public Health and is responsible for operational support and coordination.
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BAPCOC Support team |
Responsability |
Contact |
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An Caluwaerts |
Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) |
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Ann Versporten |
Project pilot Hospital Outbreak Support Teams (HOST) |
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Ernestina Repetto |
Hospital Medicine (AMS) |
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Pascaline de Bie |
Diagnostic stewardship Hand Hygiene |
pascaline.debie@health.fgov.be
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Florine Croquet |
Ambulatory Practice (AMS) |
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Heidi Van Den Bossche |
General support |
Internal regulations
Workgroups
The Commission is composed of different working groups, among which:
Ambulatory practice
The ambulatory practice working group serves as a central point for sharing expertise on the responsible use of antimicrobials in the ambulatory sector in Belgium. It supports the implementation of the NAP AMR, proposes concrete actions to combat AMR in a coordinated manner, and advises relevant authorities at the federal, regional, and local levels, always ensuring effective use of resources.
The specific objectives of the Ambulatory Practice working group are:
- Monitoring the use of antimicrobials and resistance to anti-infective drugs in ambulatory practice.
- Promoting appropriate use of antimicrobials through quality indicators.
- Formulating recommendations on antimicrobial use and related policies for ambulatory care.
- Supporting training and the development of guidelines on antimicrobial policy for ambulatory care.
- Ensuring coherence between actions and improving/centralizing communication to field actors.
Mission statement and internal rules (FR /NL) and composition
Material for ambulatory practice.
Hospital medicine
The Hospital Medicine working group supports the implementation of the NAP-AMR 2020-2024. Specifically, it aims to provide expert advice and support to promote the judicious use of anti-infective agents in hospitals. The specific objectives of the Hospital Medicine working group are:
- Monitoring the use of antimicrobials and resistance to anti-infective drugs in hospitals.
- Improving the quality of antibiotic use in hospitals using quality indicators.
- Supporting, optimizing, and monitoring the functioning of Antibiotic Stewardship Teams.
- Formulating recommendations on antibiotic use and related policies for Belgian hospitals.
- Supporting training and guidelines on antibiotic policy for Belgian hospitals.
Federal hospital hygiene platform
The federal platform serves as a central point for sharing expertise in infection prevention and control (IPC)to facilitate national approaches to healthcare policy and planning in IPC. It aims to strengthen collaboration with all IPC stakeholders and establish connections with other national programs with the goal of preventing and controlling healthcare-associated infections.
Mission statement and internal rules (FR and NL) and composition
Contact regional platforms.
Hand hygiene
For 20 years, this working group has been responsible for national awareness campaigns on hand hygiene in hospitals. Hand hygiene plays a crucial role in preventing nosocomial diseases. You can find the materials for healthcare workers available on the hand hygiene page and are also invited to follow their efforts to raise patients awareness on the website "You are in good hands"
More info
Hyperlinks to related themes on the FPS’s webpages
www.usagecorrectantibiotiques.be
http://www.vousetesendebonnesmains.be
Hyperlinks to related themes, outside the FPS’s portal site:
Become an Antibiotic Guardian and choose your pledge now!
Read the opinion of Prof. Goossens, President of BAPCOC: "Shout about the European Union’s success".
http://www.nosoinfo.be/nosoinfos/
- NOSO INFO publishes articles, reviews, comments and information on hospital hygiene. Intends to inform nurses, physicians, pharmacists and other hospital care providers in this field. The name of the magazine was derived from 'nosocomial', meaning ‘hospital related’.
NOSO INFO is a common publication of ABIHH, BICS and BAPCOC, supported by the Federal Public Service for Public Health, Food Chain Safety and Environment.
The editions dating back to 2006 or earlier are still available on the UCL's website. The numbers from 2007 up to 2014 can be downloaded.
Since 2014, NOSO Info is only available electronically. Four editions are still published every year.
Literature
Information for health care providers
2016
GRACE INTRO
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In 2016-2017 BAPCOC actively prepared an online training module that will be accessible for all general practitioners in Belgium. The module BAPCOC GRACE INTRO already showed that we can significantly and safely reduce antibiotics prescriptions by general practitioners in Belgium, Britain, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and Wales on the short and on the long run. The module has furthermore been appreciated by physicians and patients. It includes a general introduction on coughing, antibiotics, resistance etc, but above all a communication training for general practitioners featuring concrete examples (on video) about how they can successfully conduct a consultation with a patient suffering from a (non-severe) bronchi infection and how they can interactively use a personalized brochure containing relevant information for patients. More info will be available soon.
PPS
Global Point Prevalence Survey Antimicrobial Consumption and Resistance
- The working group hospital medicine of the Belgian Antibiotic Policy Coordination Committee (BAPCOC) participates in the Belgian part of the Global Point Prevalence Survey Antimicrobial Consumption and Resistance in acute hospitals). This survey follows three earlier point prevalence surveys conducted by the European Surveillance of Antimicrobial Consumption (ESAC) during the 2006-2009 period.
In 2015 BAPCOC coordinated this global project in collaboration with the Antwerp University (UA, software type application): www.global-pps.com. The first results were presented on the occasion of the European Antibiotic Awareness Day on November 18th, 2015
On the European level, ECDC organizes a point prevalence survey (PPS) every 5 years on hospital related infections and use of antibiotics in acute hospitals. The last survey was in 2011. The Scientific Public Health Institute (ISP) organized this PPS for Belgium.
Report including the results for Belgium (year 2011).
This survey will be repeated in 2016-2017. More information will soon be available on the ISP website (www.wiv-isp.be).
Report including the results for Belgium (year 2011).
Documents on the PPS 2015.
FAQ’s and IT manual are available on the website www.global-PPS.com
Contact
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Generic email account : |
Publications
Annual reports
Brochures
Sensitizing campaigns
Bob et Bobette: Tante biotica
e-Bug:
- For primary schools
- For secondary schools
Campaigns hand hygiene
Campaign 2012-2013
Campaign 2010-2011
Campaign 2008-2009
Campaign 2006-2007
Publication of the final report featuring the results of the Campaing "You are in good hands" 2008-2009 .
Posters
For the sensitizing actions’ posters, please consult the page « Brochures ».
Studies
2016
LYME
Coordinated by BAPCOC, a working group consisting of infectiologists, general practitioners and epidemiologists has developed a scientific literature based recommendation on the prevention, the diagnosis and the treatment of Lyme borreliosis. This recommandation was validated by the Belgian Infectiology and Clinical Microbiology Society (SBIMC), Domus Medica, the Royal Belgian Society for Rheumatology (SRBR), the Flemisch Neurology association (VVN, Vlaamse Vereniging voor Neurologie) and the Public Health institute.
2015
NEWSLETTER
BAPCOC published its first newsletter edition.
CPE
Following the recent increase of Carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (CPE), the Federal Public Health Service has taken a certain number of measures.
2012
Guide belge des traitements anti-infectieux en pratique ambulatoire - édition 2012
Intercalaire antibiotiques pour médecins généraliste - édition 2012
'antibiotics charts' for pharmacists
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Besides the name of the antibiotic medicine, more and more physicians mention the duration of the antibiotherapy on their prescription sheets. Indeed, the new recommendations for taking antibiotics advise a certain number of days for antibiotherapy. However the duration of the treatment does not always correspond to the number of tablets available in the package, and leftovers are accumulated in the patient’s home. Stocking antibiotics leftovers in domestic medicine chests has to be avoided as it incites to self-medication. Moreover the boxes of antibiotics that were started no longer contain sufficient tablets for an efficient therapy. These leftovers of antibiotics are not only useless, they also constitute a risk of developing resistance.
Since 2011 all Belgian pharmacists are asked to apply a sticker to all boxes of antibiotics they sell during the national ‘antibiotics’ campaign. This action also allows to open a dialogue with the patient about the proper use of antibiotics.
2010
Treatment of acute gastroenteritis in ambulatory practice
2009
Treatment of acute COBP-exacerbations in ambulatory practice
Treatment of acute exacerbations - detailed chart for physicians
Recommendations of the High Health Coucil on hand hygiene
The WHO guidelines on Hand hygiene
2008
Belgian guide of anti-infectious treatments in ambulatory practice - 2008 edition
Prior to 2008
Guidelines acute Cystitis in women
Guidelines acute Rhinosinusitis
Guidelines acute infections of the lower bronchi in adult patients
Belgian guide of infectious treatments in ambulatory practice - 2006 edition
Guidelines acute Pyelonephritis frite in adult patients 2003
Guidelines bacterial meningitis 2005
Forms
Events
Symposium
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18/11/2016 - Examples of best practices to reduce antibiotic resistance
Symposium organized by BAPCOC. Join us
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European Hand Hygiene Excellence Award,
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25/02/2016 : « Contre les infections associées aux soins l’implication de la direction fait la différence ! »
On Wednesday Nov. 18th 2015, on the occasion of the European Antibiotic Awareness Day, BAPCOC organized a meeting day ONE HEALTH STRATEGY. This meeting allowed each of the working groups to present their activities and results.
- Introduction by the BAPCOC Chairman : One health
- Veterinary medicine:
- Ambulatory practice and Sensitization: Less and better consumption of antibiotics outside hospitals
- Federale Platform for hospital hygiene: report of achievments and perspectives & Hand hygiene campaigns
- Hospital medicine: the Point Prevalence Survey: instrument for antibiotics management groups
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PPS : Feedback day June 12th, 2012
Final ECDC report , including the results for Belgium (year 2011).
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PPS : Workshop of September 8th, 2011
- Programme and presentations