India’s fight against antibiotic resistance has taken a dire turn. A new report by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) highlights a worrying rise in drug-resistant infections across the country. Diseases such as urinary tract infections (UTIs), blood infections, pneumonia and typhoid fever are becoming harder to treat as bacteria increasingly resist common antibiotics.
ICMR’s Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance Network (AMRSN) released its seventh annual report, which focused on the declining effectiveness of antibiotics commonly used to combat infections such as pneumonia, sepsis, respiratory diseases and diarrhoea. The study analysed data from hospitals and clinics across India between January 1, 2023, and December 31, 2023, from both outpatient and intensive care unit (ICU) settings.
The report revealed alarming trends: 99,492 samples from public and private healthcare facilities were tested for resistance to bacteria such as E. coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus. These samples were taken from blood, urine, respiratory tract and other sites of infection.
One of the most worrying findings was the increasing resistance of E. coli, particularly in ICUs and outpatient settings. Key antibiotics such as cefotaxime, ceftazidime, ciprofloxacin and levofloxacin showed less than 20% efficacy in treating infections caused by this bacteria.
Klebsiella pneumoniae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa also showed increasing resistance, particularly to essential antibiotics such as piperacillin-tazobactam, imipenem and meropenem. The report noted a significant decline in the efficacy of piperacillin-tazobactam, from 56.8 percent in 2017 to just 42.4 percent in 2023.
Even widely used antibiotics such as amikacin and meropenem, which were once considered reliable, are losing their effectiveness against infections. Gram-negative bacteria, responsible for infections in various parts of the body, were the most frequent in samples taken from blood, urine and lungs.
Researchers also found that more than 95 percent of strains of Salmonella typhi, the bacteria responsible for gastroenteritis, have developed resistance to fluoroquinolones, a group of antibiotics frequently prescribed for serious infections.
“Continuous monitoring of antimicrobial susceptibilities is crucial to adapt empirical antibiotic therapy, optimize patient outcomes and control the spread of resistance,” the report said.
The report also raises concerns about the misuse of essential antibiotics in agriculture, which is exacerbating the resistance crisis, and calls for stricter standards to preserve the efficacy of these essential medicines for human and animal health.
First published: September 23, 2024 | 16:49 IS
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