K’taka to roll out action plan to combat antimicrobial resistance

Bengaluru: After a five-year delay, Karnataka may finally have an action plan to combat Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR).

Health and Family Welfare Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao on Friday, directed the officials to develop a plan that would focus on chalking out a strategic implementable roadmap to combat AMR in Karnataka.

“We should develop a detailed state action plan that is not merely restricted to listing priorities and objectives but also sets out a strategic implementable roadmap to combat AMR in Karnataka. All stakeholders should step up efforts to raise public awareness on this global menace,” he said. 

AMR occurs when pathogens change over time and stop responding to medicines, making infections harder to treat.

“Overexposing pathogens to antimicrobial drugs due to abuse or misuse enables the pathogens acquire resistance against the drug. As a result, we have been witnessing an increasing number of bacterial and viral infections – such as pneumonia, tuberculosis, gonorrhea, and salmonellosis – which are resistant to antimicrobial drugs, thereby making it harder to treat them,” a statement by the health department said.

No new classes of antibiotics have come on the market for more than 25 years and without effective antimicrobials, the success of modern medicine in treating infections would be at an increased risk.

“The cost of AMR to the economy is significant, causing unprecedented numbers of AMR-related death and disability, creating prolonged illness, longer hospital stays, and increasing the need for more expensive medicines and financial challenges for those impacted,” the statement said. 

Considering these factors and given that the UN has declared AMR as one of the top ten global public health threats humanity is facing, Rao urged the public not to consume antibiotics unless prescribed by a doctor.