ANTI MICROBIAL RESISTANCE

Subject : Science & tech

Context : Misuse and overuse of antimicrobials has led to a steep rise in antimicrobial resistance (AMR), impacting planetary health, global economies and stalling sustainable development.

Concept :

• AMR is the resistance of a microorganism (bacteria, parasites, viruses or fungi) to an antimicrobial drug that was originally effective for treatment of infections caused by it is a public health crisis.
• Within AMR, antibacterial (antibiotic) resistance is the biggest threat because common infections (respiratory, skin wound, etc) could become untreatable.
• Isolated measures addressing antibiotic misuse in humans, animals or environment will not be able to contain AMR.
• Effective regulation to enforce optimum use of antibiotics is one such approach, but will only be effective if it encompasses the One Health approach. One Health includes human, animal and environmental health.
• It has been suggested by the World Health Organization’s (WHO) 2015 Global Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance (GAP) as well as AMR National Action Plans (NAP) of countries.
• Objective four of the NAP-AMR aims to ensure optimum use of antibiotics in all sectors. In the areas of poultry, aquaculture, livestock and environmental protection, clear regulations with respect to antibiotic use and effluent discharge are minimal or absent.
• However, compliance is often poor and enforcement is patchy. To overcome the inefficiencies of traditional regulation and the pitfall of deregulation, a concept of ‘smart regulation’ was coined.
• Smart regulation is defined as a form of regulatory pluralism that embraces more flexible, imaginative and innovative forms of social control than conventional regulation. Smart regulation is a useful way to regulate complex areas that involve multiple stakeholders with converging and diverging interests.
• Smart regulation approach has been successfully used to tackle complex and multi-stakeholder issues like climate change in Australia and across a range of policy domains in the European Union.

One Health Approach

• One Health is an approach to designing and implementing programmes, policies, legislation and research in which multiple sectors communicate and work together to achieve better public health outcomes.
• The areas of work in which a One Health approach is particularly relevant include food safety, the control of zoonotic diseases (diseases that can spread between animals and humans, such as flu, rabies and Rift Valley Fever), and combating antibiotic resistance (when bacteria change after being exposed to antibiotics and become more difficult to treat).