Govt identified antimicrobial resistance as key priority in national health policy: Union minister

Bharati Pawar

The government has identified antimicrobial resistance as a key priority in its national health policy and a series of initiatives have been taken to build systems to counter it, Union minister Bharati Pawar has said.

The minister of state for health said India's example of prioritising the development and implementation of state action plans for containment of AMR is a best practice that can be further discussed and emulated by other countries.

Pawar was delivering India's national statement at the third Global High-Level Ministerial Conference on AMR at Muscat in Oman on Friday, according to a statement by the Health Ministry.

She elaborated that India's National Action Plan for containment of the AMR (NAP-AMR) was officially released on April 19, 2017.  The Delhi Declaration on the AMR, which is an inter-ministerial consensus, was signed at the launch of NAP-AMR, by the ministers of the ministries concerned pledging their whole-hearted support in AMR containment.

Pawar emphasised that "the National Action Plan for containment of AMR focuses on an integrated 'One Health' approach and involves coordination among various sectors at the state, national and international level".

She said the NAP for containment of AMR serves to leverage the strengths of various institutions such as the National Centre for Disease Control and Indian Council of Medical Research to coordinate AMR surveillance lab networks, monitor antimicrobial consumption in health facilities, strengthen infection prevention and control, as well as promote antimicrobial stewardship to optimize use of antimicrobials.