Initiatives to Enhance AMR Surveillance: Health Minister informs Parliament

Minister Jadhav mentioned that the Government of India has taken various steps to address the issue of AMR, including the launch of the Red Line awareness campaign on Antimicrobial Resistance, H and H1 of the Drugs Rules, 1945, and introducing National Treatment guidelines for judicious use of antibiotics. Awareness generation materials on AMR include posters, videos, and audio jingles on judicious use of antibiotics and on prevention of infections through hand hygiene, and are made available for use by stakeholders. The media material in 12 local languages has also been developed for the dissemination of AMR-related information and shared with States & UTs.

MoHFW has initiated “National Programme on Antimicrobial Resistance Containment”. Under this programme, State medical college labs are strengthened in a phased manner for AMR surveillance and containment activities. Moreover, Capacity building of the labs on basic procedures in Bacteriology across the network has also been done. Various SOPs have been developed, which are updated on a regular basis, and all the sentinel site laboratories are provided with training on the use of these SOPs. Training is also provided on AMR data management using the WHONET software. The quality of data submitted under the National AMR surveillance network is ensured through the External Quality Assessment Scheme (EQAS) conducted by NCDC.