Antimicrobial resistance (AMR)

Why in news?

• Given the current trajectory, drug resistance/ antimicrobial resistance (AMR) could lead to 10 million deaths annually, if left unaddressed as per a report by Wellcome Trust, an independent global charitable foundation.

What is antimicrobial resistance (AMR)?

• 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:

National level action plan:

• In April 2017, India had released its national level plan on AMR along with  Declaration in Delhi , which called for state-level action plans.
• It was framed by the National Centre for Disease Control and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
• The action plan, drawn up with multi-sectoral coordination and in alignment with the national and global action plans, will be implemented with the technical support of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and a host of collaborations with NGOs and pharma majors

About Global AMR R&D Hub:

• The Global Antimicrobial Resistance Research and Development Hub – or Global AMR R&D Hub for short – is designed to tackle growing Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) across the world.
• It was created on the initiative of G-20 leaders.
• It aims to improve the coordination of international efforts and initiatives to tackle AMR.
• It will also aim to further increasing investments into R&D for AMR.
• The Secretariat of the hub is based in Berlin and is funded by German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

PRELIMS QUESTION

Consider the following statements:
1.MDR-TB is form of Tuberculosis resistant to first-line anti-TB drugs.
2.Longitude Prize is an inducement prize offered for research into solving the global problem of antimicrobial resistance.
Which among the above statements is/are correct?
(a)1 only 
(b)2 only 
(c)Both 1 and 2
(d)Neither 1 nor 2

Answer to prelims question