Characteristics of a Nationwide Voluntary
Antibiotic Resistance Awareness Campaign in India:
Future Paths and Pointers for
Resource Limited Settings/
Low and Middle Income Countries
(paper published now on the IIMAR conducted campaign in 2017)
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2019, 16, 5141
Authors: : Ashok J. Tamhankar , Ramesh Nachimuthu, Ravikant Singh, Jyoti Harindran, Gautam Kumar Meghwanshi, Rajesh Kannan, Nachimuthu Senthil Kumar , Vikrant Negi, Lijy Jacob, Sayan Bhattacharyya, Krushna Chandra Sahoo, Vijay Kumar Mahadik Vishal Diwan , Megha Sharma, Ashish Pathak, Smita U. Khedkar, Dnyaneshwar Avhad Sonal Saxena Sandeep Nerkar Vaishali Venu Sandeep Kumar , G. Shandeepan , Khundrakpam Ranjit Singh, Ridiamma Gashnga and Arvind Kuma
Abstract :
Antibiotic resistance has reached alarming proportions globally,
prompting theWorld Health Organization to advise nations to take up
antibiotic awareness campaigns. Several campaigns have been taken up
worldwide, mostly by governments.
We
investigated whether an antibiotic resistance awareness campaign could
be organized voluntarily in India and determined the characteristics of
the voluntarily organized campaign by administering a questionnaire to
the coordinators, who participated in organizing the voluntary campaign
in India.
The
campaign characteristics were: multiple electro–physical pedagogical
and participatory techniques were used, 49 physical events were
organized in various parts of India that included lectures, posters,
booklet/pamphlet distribution, audio and video messages, competitions,
and mass contact rallies along with broadcast of messages in 11 local
languages using community radio stations (CRS) spread all over India.
The median values for campaign events were: expenditure—3000 Indian
Rupees/day (US$~47), time for planning—1 day, program spread—4 days,
program time—4 h, direct and indirect reach of the message—respectively
250 and 500 persons/event. A 2 min play entitled ‘Take antibiotics as
prescribed by the doctor’ was broadcast 10 times/day for 5 days on CRS
with listener reach of ~5 million persons. More than 85%ofcoordinators
thought that the campaign created adequateawareness about appropriate
antibiotic use and antibiotic resistance. The voluntary campaign has
implications for resource limited settings/low and middle income
countries.
