NEWS HIGHLIGHT
Theme : Health
Paper:GS-2 and GS-3
1.27 million people died in 2019 as a direct result of AMR, which is now a leading cause of death worldwide, higher than HIV/AIDS or Malaria according to a study published in Lancet.
TABLE OF CONTENT
- Context
- Antimicrobial Resistance
- Situation in India
- Causes Behind Acquired Antimicrobial Resistance
- Global Research on Antimicrobial Resistance (GRAM) report
- During the COVID How did Antibiotics Impact
Context : 1.27 million people died in 2019 as a direct result of AMR, which is now a leading cause of death worldwide, higher than HIV/AIDS or Malaria according to a study published in Lancet.
Antimicrobial Resistance :
- The term antibiotic resistance is a subset of antimicrobial resistance or AMR which is the ability of a microbe to resist the effects of medication.
- Antimicrobial resistant-microbes occur naturally and are found in people, animals, food, and the environment (in water, soil and air).
- They can spread between people and animals, including from food of animal origin, and from person to person.
- Inadequately treated sewage waste containing resistant bacteria which mixes in the environment also magnify the burden of AMR.
- Poor infection control, inadequate sanitary conditions and inappropriate food handling encourage the spread of AMR.
- AMR is facilitated by the inappropriate use of medicines, for example, using antibiotics for viral infections such as the flu.
Situation in India :
- India is among the nations with the highest burden of bacterial infections.
- An estimated 4,10,000 children aged five or less die from pneumonia in India annually; with pneumonia accounting for almost 25 % of all child deaths.
- The crude mortality from infectious diseases in India today is 417 per 1,00,000 persons.
- The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) banned the use of antibiotics and several pharmacologically active substances in fisheries.
- There is no regulation in the poultry industry where many of the commercially available pre-mixed feeds come with added antibiotics.
Causes Behind Acquired Antimicrobial Resistance :
- Overuse, misuse, and improper use (e.g., taking antibiotics to treat viral diseases!) of antimicrobials.
- Greater access to over-the-counter antibiotic drugs in developing countries.
- Using broad-spectrum antibiotics over narrow-spectrum antibiotics (targeting specific microbes only).
- Dumping of inadequately treated effluents from the pharmaceutical industry.
- Antibiotic use in livestock feed at low doses for growth promotion is industrialized countries.
- Poor sanitation and hygiene that forces the extended use of antimicrobials.
Global Research on Antimicrobial Resistance (GRAM) report :
- The Global Research on Antimicrobial Resistance (GRAM) report used statistical modeling to estimate deaths linked to 23 pathogens and 88 pathogen-drug combinations.
- Apart from 7 lakh deaths caused directly by AMR (these would not have occurred had the infections been drug-susceptible), another 49.5 lakh deaths were associated with AMR (a drug-resistant infection was implicated, but resistance itself may or may not have been the direct cause of death).
- HIV/AIDS and malaria were estimated to have caused 8.6 lakh and 6.4 lakh deaths respectively in 2019.
- Of the 23 pathogens studied, drug resistance in six (E coli, S aureus, K pneumoniae, S pneumoniae, A baumannii, and P aeruginosa) led directly to 9.29 lakh deaths and was associated with 3.57 million.
- One pathogen-drug combination – methicillin-resistant S aureus, or MRSA – directly caused more than 1 lakh deaths.
- Resistance to two classes of antibiotics often considered the first line of defense against severe infections – fluoroquinolones and beta-lactam antibiotics – accounted for more than 70% of deaths caused by AMR.
During the COVID How did Antibiotics Impact :
- Until changes in ICMR guidelines earlier this week, azithromycin was routinely prescribed for all Covid patients even though there is no evidence that this is helpful.
- The absolute lack of regard for the life-saving value of antibiotics may come back to haunt us when we need these drugs for bacterial infections.
FAQs :
-
What is AMR ?
ANS.
- The term antibiotic resistance is a subset of antimicrobial resistance or AMR which is the ability of a microbe to resist the effects of medication.
- Antimicrobial resistant-microbes occur naturally and are found in people, animals, food, and the environment (in water, soil and air).
- They can spread between people and animals, including from food of animal origin, and from person to person.
-
List a few causes of Acquired AMR ?
ANS.
- Overuse, misuse, and improper use (e.g., taking antibiotics to treat viral diseases!) of antimicrobials.
- Greater access to over-the-counter antibiotic drugs in developing countries.
- Using broad-spectrum antibiotics over narrow-spectrum antibiotics (targeting specific microbes only).
- Dumping of inadequately treated effluents from the pharmaceutical industry.