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The Hindu
3 days ago
- Health
- The Hindu
Kerala aims at 100% antibiotic literacy by December
Kerala is working towards keeping its December 2025 deadline for turning into a totally antibiotic-literate State. By December this year, the State intends to conduct antibiotic awareness activities in all hospitals and local self-government institutions (LSGIs) and ensure that no antibiotics are dispensed anywhere in the State without a proper prescription, Health Minister Veena George said here on Tuesday. She was releasing a booklet on the awareness activities on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and proper antibiotic use conducted by the Health department across all districts as part of World AMR Awareness Week, which was observed from November 18 to 24, 2024. Some 395 LSGIs and 734 hospitals in the State had together conducted 2,852 AMR awareness programmes. About 404 private hospitals, 2,238 educational institutions, and 1,530 pharmacies had joined the AMR awareness initiative The Antibiotic Literate Kerala campaign will aim at creating general public awareness on the importance of keeping drinking water and food free of antibiotic residues and how antibiotics should be consumed only as directed by a physician. The campaign will also focus on making the public aware about the significance of disposing of unused or date-expired antibiotic drugs safely, ensuring that they do not pollute waterbodies or are not thrown carelessly into soil. To aid this, an initiative launched by the State Drugs Control department — nPROUD — to ensure the safe disposal of drugs will be scaled up across the State. Despite the efforts at awareness creation, AMR awareness remains at about 40% in the State, multiple studies have proved. Also, the participation of private health sector institutions in AMR-prevention activities has not come up to the desired level. The ambitious goal of 100% antibiotic literacy can be achieved only if the State gives renewed attention to private health sector engagement. Thus, this year, all professional medical associations like the Indian Academy of Paediatrics, Association of Physicians of India, and the Indian Medical Association have pledged to focus more on improving private health sector engagement AMR is a silent pandemic and hence raising awareness and understanding of AMR and promotion of best practices among all One Health stakeholders is important to reduce the emergence and spread of drug-resistant infections. The general public should thus understand that the rational and judicious use of antibiotics is important to prevent the emergence of antibiotic-resistant strains of pathogens. Antibiotics should be bought and consumed only when the doctor prescribes them and care should be taken that the course of medicine as instructed by the doctor is completed by the patient, the Health department says.
Time of India
08-05-2025
- Health
- Time of India
State intensifies measures to curb antibiotic misuse
T'puram: Health minister Veena George said that the govt suspended the licences of 450 pharmacies and cancelled the licences of two as part of strong measures to curb the under the (KARSAP).The govt directive that antibiotics should not be sold in medical stores without a doctor's prescription has been almost fully implemented, she added. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now George said that through robust actions, the use of antibiotics decreased by 20 to 30 percent and the antibiotics used are comparatively less threatening.A high-level antimicrobial resistance (AMR) meeting was convened under the minister's leadership. The meeting recommended strengthening tests to detect antibiotic residues in milk, meat and fish. Comprehensive measures were also suggested to reduce the levels of antibiotics in cattle and poultry part of making all hospitals in Kerala antibiotic-smart, a colour-coding system will be introduced. All hospitals must implement this within three months, she added. Guidelines for local bodies as part of antibiotic literacy will also be released and local self-govt institutions will be colour-coded accordingly. Based on this colour code, micro-plans should be developed to make all local self-govt institutions must be dispensed only in blue covers for identification and all hospitals, medical stores and pharmacies must implement this, she said. Steps have been taken to convert more hospitals into antibiotic-smart hospitals. With the help of organizations like IMA, API, IAP and CIDS, efforts will be intensified in the private sector. Health workers visited over 4,00,000 homes to raise awareness. The goal is to make the state antibiotic literate by Dec this the first time in the country, George directed other districts to gradually release district-level antibiograms based on the hub-and-spoke model introduced by Ernakulam district. The nPROUD (new Programme on Removal of Unused Drugs) initiative implemented by state drugs control department in Kozhikode for the scientific collection and processing of expired and unused medicines will be expanded statewide. Kerala is also the only state conducting AMR surveillance at both secondary and primary levels.
The Hindu
08-05-2025
- Health
- The Hindu
KARSAP: 450 pharmacy licences suspended, five cancelled
Licences of 450 pharmacies have been suspended and that of five cancelled to prevent antibiotic misuse as part of strengthening the Kerala Antimicrobial Resistance Strategic Action Plan (KARSAP), Minister for Health Veena George has said. The Minister who presided over a meeting on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) said the government directive to medical stores to not sell antibiotics without doctors' prescription had been almost fully implemented. The use of antibiotics had not only declined by 20-30% in the State, but it had also been ensured that those in use were comparatively less dangerous. The meeting decided to intensify tests to detect antibiotic residues in milk, meat, and fish. Directions were given to reduce antibiotic levels in cattle and poultry feed. Colour coding It was decided to introduce colour coding to make all hospitals in the State antibiotic smart hospitals. All hospitals should implement the coding in three months. Directions were also given to issue guidelines for local self-government institutions (LSGIs) as part of the antibiotic literacy. The LSGIs would be colour coded according to these guidelines. It was on this basis that they would have to prepare microplans to become antiobiotic smart. Antibiotics should be dispensed in blue covers to make their identification easier. All hospitals, medical stores, and pharmacies should implement this. Steps had also been taken to make more hospitals antibiotic smart. Activities would be strengthened in the private sector with the support of organisations such as Indian Medical Association, Association of Physicians of India, and the Indian Academy of Paediatrics. Antibiotic literate The Minister said the State was aiming at becoming antibiotic literate by December. She directed that the first district-level antibiogram in the country, brought out by Ernakulam, would be brought out in other districts too in phases. nPROUD (New Program for the Removal of Unused Drugs) launched in Kozhikode for collecting unused and expired drugs and disposing of them scientifically would be expanded across the State.
