Holding up GLASS to India; securing stewardship to tackle AMR, Pg11

Key Highlights:

• WHO's 2025 GLASS report reveals high AMR rates in India, mirroring trends in South-East Asia.
• In 2023, about one in three bacterial infections in India showed resistance to common antibiotics.
• Key factors worsening AMR include over-the-counter antibiotic access, self-medication, and environmental contamination.
• Kerala's AMRITH program, launched in January 2024, aims to curb over-the-counter antibiotic sales.
• A 2019 ban on colistin as a growth agent in animal husbandry has been a significant intervention.
• The World AMR Awareness Week (November 18–24) urges global action to protect against AMR.

Detailed Insights:

• India's National Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance (NAP-AMR) implementation has been slow, with few states operationalizing their plans.
• Surveillance data is primarily from tertiary hospitals, potentially overestimating national resistance rates due to the exclusion of primary care data.
• The Kerala model emphasizes inter-sectoral collaboration and a One Health approach to combat AMR, aiming for antibiotic literacy by December 2025.
• Newer antibiotics are being developed, but the pipeline remains thin for truly innovative options targeting critical multidrug-resistant (MDR) pathogens.
• Addressing funding shortages and promoting industry engagement are crucial for improving India's antibiotic stewardship.
• A full-network model incorporating the 500+ NABL labs is essential to obtain truly representative national estimates.

Key Concepts Involved:

• Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR): The ability of a microorganism to resist the effects of an antimicrobial drug.
• One Health: A collaborative, multisectoral, and transdisciplinary approach to achieving optimal health outcomes.
• Antibiotic Stewardship: Efforts to measure and improve how antibiotics are prescribed and used.