A Silent Pandemic of Antimicrobial Resistance: Challenges and Strategy for Preparedness in India

 

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In the face of growing resistance against existing antibiotics and a dried-up pipeline of newer agents, the world is heading toward a silent pandemic. Globally, an estimated 4.95 million deaths occurred in 2019 due to drug-resistant infections including 1.27 million deaths attributable directly to bacterial antimicrobial resistance (AMR).[1] As per projected estimates, by 2050, AMR would cause approximately 10 million deaths worldwide and 2 million deaths in India.[1] [2] Recently (2019), in World Health Organization's (WHO) list of 10 threats to global health, AMR stands on fifth place.[3] In the preantibiotic era, infectious diseases were the primary cause of mortality worldwide. Today, if AMR left unchecked, treatable infections will lead to huge increases in fatality from bacterial infections worldwide. The resistance to first line of empirical therapy (β-lactam antibiotics and fluroquinolones) against six priority pathogens (Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, and Pseudomonas. aeruginosa) accounted for more than 70% deaths globally.[1] This continued escalation puts at risk the very practice of modern medicine, unless drastic measures are taken today to counter this threat.

Publication History

Article published online:
04 October 2022

© 2022. National Academy of Medical Sciences (India). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

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