Taking cue from the Netherlands which has sharply cut down use of antibiotics in animals without affecting costs, the Health Ministry is joining hands with four others ministries — Agriculture, Animal Husbandry, Environment, Health and Pharmaceuticals — to combat anti-microbial resistance (AMR). The AMR is becoming a "big" challenge in health sector by making life-saving antibiotics ineffective.
AMR is the ineffectiveness of life-saving antibiotics used to treat and prevent infections in human and animal patients.
To begin with, a campaign will be launched on February 22 involving the four ministries to strategise to contain the AMR.
"It would be an understanding between various ministries that we jointly strategise to contain AMR and all our policies should be in one direction so that collectively we are able to address this issue.
"We will also have a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with all ministries together. We will also develop an action plan and policies in that direction," Health Minister J P Nadda told reporters on Tuesday.
Also, the Government is moving towards a mechanism of auditing prescriptions to monitor what drug is being prescribed and detailed guidelines are expected to be framed within a month.
The Health Ministry has circulated a concept note to each of the ministries which has been agreed to by all of them and during the launch of the joint campaign, the ministries will come up with their individual view on how to go about containing AMR.
Union Health Secretary C K Mishra termed AMR as a "big" challenge. "We are also now moving towards prescription audit. The problem is prescription audit is very easy to enforce in the public sector... Not that easy in the private sector.
"We have three committees presently working on AMR that are coming up with detailed guidelines. I think by next month, we will have those guidelines in place," Mishra said adding that a prescription audit is carried out to monitor drugs being prescribed.
He pointed out that prescription audit in the private sector is a "tricky" issue and he has held discussions with the Indian Medical Association (IMA) regarding it.
Noting that the use of antibiotics in animals happens in a cycle, the Health Secretary said this has to be addressed by the Animal Husbandry Department. "Netherlands has reduced the use of antibiotics in animals by more than 50 per cent without affecting costs. That is why this programme (joint campaign) is happening," he said.