Every year, the world observes World TB Day on March 24 to raise awareness of the continued tuberculosis epidemic, especially in the developing world, and efforts to fight it. March 24 is the date in 1882 when mycobacterium tuberculosis – the pathogenic bacteria which causes the disease – was discovered the Nobel Prize winning scientist […]
antimicrobial resistance
Colistin ban in food sector over drug resistance concerns
India’s food production sector has been banned from using the antibiotic colistin, over concerns about its misuse potentially fuelling drug resistance. According to a 2009 study, “colistin is…being used increasingly as a ‘last-line’ therapy to treat infections caused by [multi-drug-resistant] Gram-negative bacteria, when essentially no other options are available.” Yet concerns are growing that, in […]
Kerala takes stand against hospital acquired infections
Kerala has learnt its lessons after the Nipah tragedy. It is to introduce a policy to control and prevent hospital acquired infections. The move comes after the Nipah virus outbreak in the state earlier this year, in which all but four of those who succumbed to the virus contracted it in hospital. “We are working […]
Poultry farms: Adding to the drug resistance epidemic?
Are India’s poultry farms worsening the antibiotic resistance crisis in India? In the expert opinion of Ramanan Laxminarayan, director of the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy, Washington DC and New Delhi, this is certainly the case. According to Laxminarayan, the majority of the poultry feed used in India is medicated with antibiotics, used […]
“Nightmare bacteria” spelling a health crisis in India
The death of an American woman from a “nightmare bacteria” she contracted in India has shed new light onto the debate surrounding antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in the country. The American woman grabbed the headlines on this occasion. However, 58,000 Indian babies die every year from bacteria that may not be as much of a “nightmare”, […]
New Indian collaborative projects with Scandinavia
India is due to begin multiple collaborative research projects in with a number of Scandinavian countries. These projects will involve work with Norway on antibiotic resistance and a project with Sweden on new ways of caring for older people. The first of the projects will involve the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) in collaboration […]