Doctors have said that better understanding of resistance mechanisms needed to effectively combat Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR). 

They added that AMR has emerged as a significant public challenge in recent years where bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites no longer respond to medicines, making infections harder to treat and increasing the risk of disease spread, severe illness, and death.

 As a result of drug resistance, antibiotics and other antimicrobial medicines become ineffective, and infections become increasingly difficult or impossible to treat.

 Dr. Bipin Nair, Dean of Life Sciences at Amrita School of Biotechnology, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham said that to combat this menace, a better understanding of resistance mechanisms is needed to facilitate novel approaches to diagnostics and therapeutics.

“It is evident that several complementary, overlapping, collaborative, and synergistic approaches with unified goals will be essential to ensure, support, and sustain access to effective antimicrobial therapies,” he added.

 He was speaking at Amrita Legion of Antimicrobial Resistance Management (ALARM) 2022, a two-day hybrid Symposium titled “Preventing Antimicrobial Resistance - Together We Can” organized by Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, ranked the 5th Best Overall University in India.

The event was held in connection with World Antimicrobial Awareness Week, an initiative launched by the World Health Organization (WHO).

"Developing appropriate strategies and interventions in the Indian context, planning effective antibiotic stewardship in India, setting pragmatic goals, promoting investments for AMR activities to spread awareness across all segments, research and innovation, and strengthening India's sustained commitment on AMR are of paramount importance," Dr. Bipin Nair said.

 Dr. Taslimarif Saiyed, CEO, Center for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP) provided insights into the proposed activities of IAIH under the chairmanship of Dr. Ajay Sood, Principle Scientific Advisor to the Prime Minister’s Office and highlighted that India would benefit greatly from the National Action Plan that is being implemented to combat AMR.

Dr. Victor Nizet, Professor and Vice Chair for Basic Research and Chief, Division of Host-Microbe Systems and Therapeutics, UCSD, California, talked about the exciting use of vaccines in combating prominent microbial multi drug resistant pathogens.