Research partly funded by Indian Initiative for Management of Antibiotic Resistance (IIMAR) wins Best Poster award
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.
