Friday, October 7, 2011


Last year under the IIMAR-ReAct cooperation scheme IIMAR had awarded some research grants to students doing research projects in the field of Antibiotic Resistance for their post-graduation. Out of these, Ms Pragya Shakya, an MD student at R.D. Gardi Medical College, Ujjain recently presented a poster based on her research at the 1st Global forum on Bacterial Infections in New delhi, for which she received the Best Poster award.
The title of presentation was ‘Antimicrobial resistance among commensal E.coli isolated from stool samples of school-going children in Ujjain, India’.  Pragya found high  resistance to penicillins, cephalosporins,  tetracyclines  and  cotrimoxazole  among the isolated  commensal E.Coli. Strains resistant to penicillins and cephalosporins were  also more likely to be resistant to fluoroquinolones. ESBL production (13%)  among  commensals indicated its spread in the community. The paper also concluded that frequent  use of antimicrobials for self limiting  illnesses in the community can be a factor  responsible  for  development of resistance  in bacteria.
Community level surveillance of commensal bacteria appears to be a pre-requisite for designing antimicrobial stewardship programmes.
IIMAR congratulates Pragya.