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What the article is about?
- Talks about the urgency to roll out action plan against antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
Syllabus: GS-II, GS-III Health
Antimicrobial Resistance:
- AMR is the resistance acquired by any microorganism (bacteria, viruses, fungi, parasite, etc.) against antimicrobial drugs (such as antibiotics, antifungals, antivirals, antimalarials, and anthelmintics) that are used to treat infections.
- As a result, standard treatments become ineffective, infections persist and may spread to others.
- Microorganisms that develop antimicrobial resistance are sometimes referred to as “superbugs”.
- The recent publication of The Lancet’s global burden of bacterial antimicrobial resistance estimated that 4.95 million deaths were associated with bacterial AMR in 2019 alone.
- It also identified the pathogens and pathogen-drug combinations that cause such resistance.
Reasons for AMR:
- This happens due to:
- indiscriminate use of antibiotics,
- availability of antibiotics over the counter,
- poor hygiene and sanitation,
- antimicrobial use in the farming and poultry industry,
- lack of vaccines and newer antibiotics, and
- poor infection control practices in hospitals.
Response:
- India released its own AMR action plan in 2017 and announced a task force for implementation.
- By 2019, Kerala and Madhya Pradesh had rolled out State action plans.
- The Chennai Declaration, a consortium of doctors and health-care institutions against AMR, was also formed in 2012 to draw up a road map.
- The ban on Colistin in the poultry, aqua farming and animal feeds supplements sectors, which India enforced from July 2019, was considered a strong strike in countering the AMR challenge.
- The World Health Organization (WHO) has identified AMR as one of the top ten threats to global health.
Way Ahead:
- Scientific publications have established the correlation between AMR and poor hygiene, lax administrative governance and poor ratio of public-private expenditure.
- Governments must raise the standard of living for citizens, providing them accessible and affordable quality health care, besides regulating the sale and use of antibiotics.
