National Action Plan for antimicrobial resistance in offing
New Delhi, Jan 2017:
In the wake of increasing antibiotic resistance across the globe, the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) is set to formulate a national action plan to curb antimicrobial resistance. NCDC would soon submit the plan to Ministry of Health and Family, for incorporating it into the national policy.
In October 2016, NCDC had come up with the National Treatment Guidelines for Antimicrobial Use in Infectious Diseases. "We will soon complete the pilot action plan for combating antibiotic resistance and submit it to the Health Ministry," said Dr Sunil Gupta, Additional Director, NCDC.
According to health ministry, antimicrobial resistance is closely linked to inappropriate antimicrobial use. It is estimated that 50 per cent or more of hospital antimicrobial use is inappropriate in India.
"There is a need for increased education and awareness about antimicrobial resistance among the public and health-care professionals. We are looking at developing and improving the surveillance system for antimicrobial resistance and infectious diseases in general, particularly through improved linkage of data. Nothing will work unless we improve diagnostic testing to ensure more tailored interventions and respond to the opportunities afforded by advances in genomic technologies and point of care testing," said Dr Gupta.
These National Treatment Guidelines list the recommended treatments for common infectious diseases that are based on scientific evidence, literature review and are consistent with the already existing international guidelines and formulated with the collective opinion of a wide group of recognised national experts.
"Antibiotic resistance is being seen all across the world. People are dying of antibiotic resistance. For instance, an elderly woman from US died after contracting infection of New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase (NDM-1) superbug. As she was in India for a brief period of time, it may be possible she contracted it here, but we are not sure, because antimicrobial resistance is everywhere ranging from India to Europe and USA. Many people are dying from antimicrobial resistance across the globe," he said.
Antimicrobial resistance is well recognised as a global threat to human health. Infections caused by antimicrobial-resistant micro-organisms in hospitals are associated with increased morbidity, mortality and healthcare costs. Resistance has emerged even to newer and more potent antimicrobial agents like carbapenem due to which the USA woman died.