Antimicrobial Resistance A Global Problem :Azad

Antimicrobial Resistance A Global Problem – Our Solutions Need to be Sensitive to Local Constraints: Azad The Union Minister for Health & Family Welfare, Shri Ghulam Nabi Azad inaugurated today the “1st Global Forum on Bacterial Infections: Balancing Treatment, Access and Antibiotic Resistance” organized in New Delhi.

Speaking on the occasion, Shri Azad said “Antimicrobial Resistance poses a growing threat to the treatment and control of infectious diseases. It is now time to look into this problem more holistically. Resistance to micro-organisms leads to loss of lives, productivity and earnings, and also threatens to undermine the effectiveness of health delivery programmes in all Member States”. He said there is an urgent need to formulate and implement effective strategies to prevent and contain antimicrobial resistance and preserve the efficacy of antimicrobial drugs.

The Minister noted that “For a large country like India where a significant fraction lacks access to basic healthcare and antibiotics, we have an urgent need to protect the effectiveness of our most affordable drugs”. He informed that India has created an antibiotics policy that will restrict access to new generation antibiotics over the counter, restrict use for sub-therapeutic purposes in the animal feed sector and will focus on various measures to reduce the need for antibiotics. Shri Azad asked the forum to debate the feasibility of a separate schedule H1 under the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules to rationalize and regulate antibiotics in the market, keeping in view the ground realities of particularly the rural India. The Minister acknowledged that the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has received representations from various stakeholders and a balanced view in the matter would be taken. Shri Azad said “although resistance is global problem, shared by developing and developed countries, our solutions must be local and sensitive to constraints of respective health systems”.