Over half of prescribed antibiotics in India can lead to AMR, finds National Centre for Disease Control

About 57 per cent of prescribed antibiotics fall into a category of drugs with a high potential for antimicrobial resistance (AMR) that generally have to be monitored for misuse, a report released this week by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare found.

The study was conducted by the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) under the ministry over six months from November 2021 to April 2022. The survey included 9,652 patients and 12,342 antibiotic prescriptions across 20 tertiary care institutes across the country. The sites showed a wide variation in prescription activity, ranging from 37 per cent to 100 per cent.

The antibiotic prescriptions were classified based on AWaRe categories developed in 2017 by the World Health Organization (WHO) Expert Committee on Selection and Use of Essential Medicines.