The government has identified antimicrobial resistance as a key priority in its national health policy and a series of initiatives have been taken to build systems to counter it, Union minister Bharati Pawar said on Friday. Pawar was delivering India‘s national statement at the third Global High-Level Ministerial Conference on AMR at Muscat in Oman.

The minister of State for Health said India’s example of prioritizing the development and implementation of state action plans for containment of AMR is a best practice that can be further discussed and emulated by other countries, a Union Health Ministry statement quoting the minister said.

Pawar elaborated that India’s National Action Plan for containment of AMR (NAP-AMR) was officially released on April 19, 2017.

The Delhi Declaration on AMR, which is an inter-ministerial consensus, was signed at the launch of NAP-AMR, by the ministers of the concerned ministries pledging their whole-hearted support in AMR containment.
She emphasized that “the National Action Plan for containment of AMR focuses on an integrated ‘One Health’ approach and involves coordination among various sectors at the state, national and international level”.

She said the NAP for containment of AMR serves to leverage the strengths of various institutions such as the National Centre for Disease Control and Indian Council of Medical Research to coordinate AMR surveillance lab networks, monitor antimicrobial consumption in health facilities, strengthen infection prevention and control, as well as promote antimicrobial stewardship to optimize use of antimicrobials.