ANTI MICROBIAL RESISTANCE

ANTI MICROBIAL RESISTANCE

TOPIC: Science & Tech

Context- In the past few years, alarmingly high resistance rates in pathogens of public health importance have been reported from Indian hospitals.

Concept-

• The “Global burden of bacterial antimicrobial resistance in 204 countries and territories in 2019 (GRAM)” report, released last month by Lancet, provides the most comprehensive estimate of the global impact of antibiotic resistance to date.
• According to the report:
  • 95 million people died from drug-resistant bacterial infections in 2019, with 3,89,000 deaths in South Asia alone.
  • Amongst pathogens, E coli was responsible for the most deaths in 2019, followed by K pneumoniae, S aureus, Abaumannii, S pneumoniae, and M tuberculosis.
  • 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 defence against severe infections – fluoroquinolones and betalactam antibiotics – accounted for more than 70% of deaths caused by AMR.

WHO-GLASS portal:

• On 22 October 2015, WHO launched the Global Antimicrobial Resistance and Use Surveillance System (GLASS), the first global collaborative effort to standardize AMR surveillance.
• GLASS was created to support the second objective of the GAP-AMR initiative to “strengthen knowledge through surveillance and research”, and to continue filling knowledge gaps, with the aim to inform strategies at all levels.
  • In 2015, WHO Member States unanimously approved a Global Action Plan to tackle AMR (GAP-AMR).
• GLASS provides a standardized approach to the collection, analysis, interpretation and sharing of data by countries and seeks to actively support capacity building and monitor the status of existing and new national surveillance systems.

UN Resolution on AMR:

• 21 September 2016: During a high-level meeting convened by UN General Assembly, UN Member States adopted a political declaration on antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
• They also called for action, and outlined initiatives carried out nationally to address AMR.

UNEA 5.2 on AMR:

• UNEP) identified five major contributors to the global development, transmission and spread of antimicrobial resistance(AMR) in a new report on the sidelines of the fifth session of the UN Environment Assembly at Nairobi.
  • Poor sanitation, sewage and waste effluent;
  • Effluent and waste from pharmaceuticals manufacturing;
  • Effluent and waste from healthcare facilities;
  • Use of antimicrobial and manure in crop production;
  • Releases, effluent and waste in animal production.
• The report identifies focus areas for reducing the burden of AMR by focusing on prevention and mitigation actions, as well as promoting sustainable production and consumption. These include:
  • Enhancing environmental governance, planning and regulatory frameworks
  • Identifying and targeting priority AMR-relevant pollutants
  • Improving reporting, surveillance and monitoring
  • Prioritising financing, innovation and capacity development

About AMR:

• Antimicrobial resistance is the resistance acquired by any microorganism (bacteria, viruses, fungi, parasite, etc.) against antimicrobial drugs (such as antibiotics, antifungals, antivirals, antimalarials, and anthelmintics) that are used to treat infections.
• As a result, standard treatments become ineffective, infections persist and may spread to others.
• Microorganisms that develop antimicrobial resistance are sometimes referred to as “superbugs”.