Global Antibiotics Consumption as well as Resistance Increasing: CDDEP

Contributed by: Siddarth David and Dr. Tamhankar

Researchers at the Centre for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy (CDDEP), Washington DC, released a report and an online interactive mapping tool, last week, that documenting rates of bacteria resistant to last-resort antibiotics that can lead to life-threatening infections across the world. data come from a variety of sources, from small private laboratories in India to large datasets from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, covering 30 countries.

The executive summary of the State of the World's Antibiotics 2015, states that between 2001-10 the global consumption of antibiotics rose by 30% and in countries where they are sold over the counter like Brazil, India and South Africa, they rose by a staggering 210%. It further states that though wealthy countries still use far more antibiotics per capita, there are growing high rates in the low- and middle-income countries where surveillance data is now available—such as India, Kenya, and Vietnam.

The data also shows that antibiotic resistance is also rising especially in in sub-Saharan Africa, India, Latin America, and Australia and was recorded at 47% in India in 2014, and 90% in Latin American hospitals in 2013. The report should serve as wake up call to health policy makers to implement guidelines on antibiotic stewardship and judicious use as succinctly put by Ramanan Laxminarayan, CDDEP Director and report co-author "We need to focus 80 percent of our global resources on stewardship and no more than 20 percent on drug development."

India to issue fresh guidelines on Anitibiotic Usage soon

Contributed by: Dr. Tamhankar & Siddarth David

In the heel of the of 68th Session of the WHO's South East Asia Regional Committee in Dili, Timor-Leste, India would be issuing guidelines to restrict the blatant sale of antibiotics to avoid development of resistance. This is part of the global strategy adopted by the WHO member countries to control antibiotic resistance in diseases,

Rajesh Bhatia, chief scientific advisor to WHO Regional Director for South East Asia  said that India was ready with guidelines for curbing the unrestricted sale of antibiotics in the country and would issue them soon. The WHO's South East Asia Regional Committee is meeting to discuss among other things the progress of the 11 member states in implementing national antibiotic control action plans by May 2017, a resolution taken the World Health Assembly in May this year at Geneva.  

"Antibiotic Resistance Alarming Threat to Global Public Health": APJ Abdul Kalam

Contributed by: Dr. Akilesh & Dr. Tamhankar

In celebrating the life and ideas of the nation's popular ex-president and career scientist Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, who inspired millions, it would be interesting to note that one of his last public addresses before his death was on antibiotic resistance.

While, speaking at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi on the eve of National Doctors Day on 30th June, Dr. Kalam stressed the need for better antibiotic stewardship given its threat to public health.

One, hopes that the Indian Government does take the words of the late Dr. Kalam and puts it into practice, by developing and enforcing policies and guidelines on judicious use of antibiotic along with a focus on research to produce national and regional-level data on resistance.  

" 9 out of 10 GPs say they feel pressured to prescribe antibiotics": NICE, UK

Contributed by: Dr. Tamhankar & Siddarth David

On August 18, 2015, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) in the UK released its first guidelines on antimicrobial stewardship "Antimicrobial stewardship: systems and processes for effective antimicrobial medicine use". https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng15 The NICE is the statutory body in the UK that provides national guidance and advice to improve health and social care.

The Guidelines are designed to promote judicious antibiotic use by reviewing prescribing and resistance data and providing feedback, education and training to prescribers. The NICE reports that "9 out of 10 GPs say they feel pressured to prescribe antibiotics, and 97% of patients who ask for antibiotics are prescribed antibiotics”. The Guidelines have been aimed at health practitioners, pharmacists, nurses and provider organisations.

The current edition of the Lancet has an editorial on the strengths and weaknesses of the Guidelines.  http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(15)61522-7/fulltext?rss=yes The NICE guidelines are pioneering antibiotic stewardship in the UK, which is particularly significant given that the UK lags way behind countries like Sweden and Norway in implementing policies to address antibiotic resistance. The NICE Guidelines are a welcome step to global measures on antibiotic stewardship and hopefully would push other countries to take notice and follow with their own guidelines.

Shocking to know people don't know what does "antibiotic resistance" actually mean!

"People in UK have no idea what the term "antibiotic resistance" actually means", reveals a study commissioned by  Wellcome Trust.

Most people surveyed mentioned that they thought antibiotic resistance means their own body became resistant to the antibiotic. They did not know that it is the micro-organism that became resistant. This misconception is a serious issue as they then felt that antibiotic resistance is not their problem but someone else's.

This information is shocking coming from a developed nation like UK. This could only mean that the terms used by the media and the doctors to the public need more clarification and simplification to enable better communication and understanding of this pandemic issue. The situation in developing countries will be far worse. For a country like India, there is widespread 'know-do' gap that exists which needs to be bridged in healthcare and specially in the area of 'antibiotic resistance'.

Source: http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/About-us/Policy/Spotlight-issues/Antimicrobial-resistance/