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Rampant use of antibiotics, available easily over the counter in our country, is leading to increasing incidence of antimicrobial resistant organism. With novel drug development not keeping pace, infection control falls short and transmission of antimicrobial resistant (AMR) organisms between patients occurs. Those who develop these infections experience the consequences of ineffective treatment, delayed recovery, recurrent infection, or even death.
Kalinga Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS) organised an Antimicrobial Stewardship Programme on February 5, 2018 to discuss these issues and sensitize the clinicians. The programme was spearheaded by Prof. Nusrat Shafiq, Professor, Department of Pharmacology, PGIMER, Chandigarh, which has been one of the centres in the country actively pursuing this programme. The Govt. of India and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) are also very keen to pursue this programme.
Solutions debated included eliminating antibiotic from livestock feed and decreasing use of antibiotics for human infections that are self-limited or likely to have been caused by viruses. Improved adherence to infection control guidelines has become a national priority for preventing health care acquired infection and AMR. Clinicians are obligated to treat each patient as effectively as possible. As more reports of AMR emerge, there may be a paradoxical effect, causing providers to go to newer broad spectrum agents to which resistance may be less common. There are times and cost constraints for obtaining cultures to guide treatment decisions and empirical therapy are perceived to be more cost effective in ambulatory settings. Moreover, most antimicrobial prescriptions are written by clinicians who are not infectious disease specialists.
The Programme proceedings were attended by Prof. Gilltanjali Batmanabane, Director, AIIMS, Bhubaneswar who is a Pharmacologist and was actively involved at JIPMER in their antibiotic stewardship programme. Prof. Sasmita Samanta, Registrar, KIlT Deemed University, Prof. J. K. Dash, Principal, KIMS and Dr. Manjushree Mohanty, Head, Deptt. of Pharmacology also attended the Program. It was decided to initiate the programme in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) initially at KIMS.