That is why ICMR's Dr Walia is setting up an antimicrobial surveillance network across the nation. She added: "A strong antimicrobial resistance surveillance system provides us real time information and evidence of what is the disease burden in the country, and how the antimicrobial resistance patterns and trends are changing with time, so that we can launch an informed and evidence based response. Data from both- hospitals and community needs to be correlated with antimicrobial consumption data."
The ICMR Surveillance Network was started in 2013 and is functional across 30 tertiary care hospitals, including some private hospitals and some standalone laboratories, across the country. It focuses on six pathogenic groups that cause a large number of drug-resistant infections in the hospitals and in the communities. Along with surveillance, ICMR is also focusing on training participating hospitals in infection control and prevention practices and helping them to establish and implement antimicrobial resistance stewardship, to train the doctors to prescribe responsibly and appropriately.
ICMR data of 2020 shows large burden of drug-resistant bugs
Dr Kamini Walia said that 2020 Data released by ICMR shows that India has a very large burden of drug-resistant Gram negative infections- as high as 70% in E.coli and K. pneumoniae. A. Baumannii- a common pathogen seen in hospital-acquired infections showed 70% resistance to Carbapenem (a major last-line class of antibiotics to treat serious bacterial infections).
Stop doing bad, do more good
S.typhi was found to be highly resistant to floroquinolone but 100% sensitive to ampicillin, chloramphenicol and cotrimoxazole and cefixime- drugs to which it had become resistant in 1990s. But now it has once again become fully sensitive to them by simply reducing their usage. This provides evidence that when we stop using a particular antimicrobial, the organism once again becomes sensitive it, said Dr Walia.
However, there is a bad news too: Resistance to broad spectrum antibiotic Faropenem (used to treat respiratory tract and other infections) in India increased from 3% to 40% in just 6 years-2009-2015 because of its overuse.
Covid-19 and antimicrobial resistance
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