Antimicrobial resistance (AMR)

Subject :Science and Technology

Context-

Over 50% of life-threatening bacterial infections are becoming resistant to treatment: WHO

Report-

Global Antimicrobial Resistance and Use Surveillance System (GLASS) report
Findings based on 2020 data from 87 countries.
Published by- World Health Organisation (WHO)
The report, for the first time, analyzes antimicrobial resistance (AMR) rates, tracking trends in 27 countries since 2017.

Report findings-

High levels of bacterial resistance shown by Klebsiella pneumoniae and Acinetobacter spp against carbapenems drug.
Over 60 per cent of Neisseria gonorrhoea infections, a common sexually transmitted disease, show resistance to ciprofloxacin, one of the most widely used oral antibacterials.
over 20 per cent of E.coli isolates, the most common pathogen in urinary tract infections, were resistant to ampicillin and co-trimoxazole, first-line drugs, as well as second-line treatments known as fluoroquinolones.
Bloodstream infections due to resistant E.coli, Salmonella and gonorrhoea infections, have jumped by at least 15 per cent compared to 2017 rates.

What is antimicrobial resistance (AMR)-

Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) is an ability of a microbe to resist the effects of medication previously used to treat them. It is also known as antibiotic resistance.
The WHO defines antimicrobial resistance as a microorganism’s resistance to an antimicrobial drug that was once able to treat an infection by that microorganism.
The resistance to antimicrobials is a natural biological phenomenon.