Antimicrobial Resistance

Why in news?

• World Health Organisation (WHO) released core package interventions on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR).

About the Interventions

• Interventions guide country in developing, implementing and monitoring national action plans on AMR.
• It promotes people-centered approach {shifting from solely biological phenomenon (drug resistance)}. These interventions are based on four pillars and two foundational steps.
• Four pillars are: Prevention of infections, Access to essential health services, Timely and accurate diagnosis and appropriate and quality-assured treatment.
• Two Foundational steps are:
  • Effective governance, awareness and education.
  • Strategic information through surveillance and research.

About Antimicrobial Resistance

• Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is the ability of a microorganism to stop an antimicrobial (such as antibiotics, antivirals and antimalarials) from working against it.
• As a result, standard treatments become ineffective, infections persist and may spread to others.
• Irrational use of drugs, overdosing or under-dosing, self-medication, misuse of drugs, and the inappropriate use of antimicrobials etc are the leading reasons behind growth of AMR.
• The term antibiotic resistance (AR or ABR) is a subset of AMR, as it applies to bacteria that become resistant to antibiotics.
• Resistant microbes are more difficult to treat, requiring higher doses, or alternative medications which may prove more toxic. 
• These approaches may also be more expensive. Microbes resistant to multiple antimicrobials are called multidrug resistant (MDR)

Causes

Key Initiatives

• National action plan (2017) on containment of AMR focusing on One Health approach.
• National AMR surveillance network of state medical college labs (NARS-Net) to generate quality data on AMR.
• Global Action Plan on AMR (World Health Assembly, 2015).

PRACTICE QUESTION

How many of the following is/are cause(s) of antibiotic resistance?

1. Lack of use of antibiotics in livestock farming.
2. Over-prescribing of antibiotics.
3. Lack of hygiene and poor sanitation.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) Only one

(b) Only two

(c) All the three

(d) None of these

Answer