12 lakh people died of antimicrobial resistance in 2019, shows Lancet research

Dr Kamini Walia, programme officer, AMR, at Indian Council of Medical Research(ICMR) told the Indian Express that lots of antibiotics are being used in an irrational manner during the current Coronavirus pandemic. Dr Walia further said that study had shown that COvid-19 patients acquired drug resistant infections in hospitals and A study reported by ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research) from 10 hospitals showed that when Covid patients acquired drug-resistant infections in hospitals the mortality increased by 50-60 percent.

Dr Ramanan Laxminarayan, Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy (US) told the Indian Express that azithromycin was routinely prescribed  for all Coronavirus patients even though there is no evidence that it was helpful. Dr Laxminarayan further said that the absolute disregard for the life saving antibiotics may come back to haunt in future when these drugs are needed to fight against bacterial infections.

Why Lancet study is significant
It is one of the first studies that we have the number of patients who have died due to AMR, Dr Walia said. He further said that there have been attempts to record such deaths even in India but that is challenging as the deaths are not reported to have been caused by AMR. Dr Walia further said that in the absence of such data, it is very difficult for the health professionals to nudge the government and policy makers to come up with a substantial solution to the problem.