AMR containment strategies must be urgently integrated into health programmes: Centre

New Delhi, Sep 27: India has reaffirmed its commitment to combat antimicrobial resistance (AMR) at the 79th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) high-level meeting on AMR, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Friday. Addressing the gathering of global leaders, Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Anupriya Patel called for urgently integrating AMR containment strategies in various health programmes.

Patel also highlighted the urgent need for global cooperation to address the growing threat of AMR. “AMR poses a critical threat to global public health undermining decades of progress made in the field of modern medicine,” said Patel. AMR occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites no longer respond to medicines. This leads to infections becoming difficult or impossible to treat, increasing the risk of disease spread, severe illness, and death.

“Urgent integration of AMR containment strategies into the various health programmes” is the need of the hour, the MoS added. She called for the inclusion of AMR strategies in programmes that focus “on pandemic preparedness, health system strengthening and universal health coverage with the focus of resource utilisation more on prevention and mitigation than surveillance”.

The Union Minister also highlighted India's significant strides in combating AMR since the launch of its National Action Plan (NAP AMR) in April 2017. She underscored the progress made in expanding surveillance networks both in the human and animal sectors. This includes reducing hospital-acquired infections by improving infection prevention and control and promoting responsible antimicrobial use across human and animal health sectors.

Under the Clean India Mission, the country’s sanitation, hygiene, and infection control in healthcare facilities has significantly improved, the MoS said. In addition, “a nationwide systematic and standardised surveillance of healthcare associated infections (HAI) has been initiated in the country,” Patel said, adding that regulations have been made to “ensure prescription based sales of antimicrobials”.

The UNGA was informed that India has developed an Antimicrobial Stewardship (AMS) programme to reduce unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions and combat rising AMR. “India remains fully committed to addressing the AMR challenge,” Patel said while calling for collective work to “mitigate the risks posed by AMR and safeguard the future of public health worldwide”.

Meanwhile, global leaders at the UNGA committed to a clear set of targets and actions, including reducing the estimated 4.95 million human deaths associated with bacterial AMR annually by 10 per cent by 2030.