CHENNAI DECLARATION on AMR !!!!

What is antimicrobial resistance?

• Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is resistance of a microorganism to an antimicrobial medicine to which it was previously sensitive. 
• Resistant organisms (they include bacteria, viruses and some parasites) are able to withstand attack by antimicrobial medicines, such as antibiotics, antivirals, and antimalarials, so that standard treatments become ineffective and infections persist and may spread to others. 
• AMR is a consequence of the use, particularly the misuse, of antimicrobial medicines and develops when a microorganism mutates or acquires a resistance gene.

Why is antimicrobial resistance a global concern?

• AMR kills, 
• AMR hampers the control of infectious diseases
• AMR threatens a return to the pre-antibiotic era
• AMR increases the costs of health care 
• AMR threatens health security, and damages trade and economies 
• AMR jeopardizes health-care gains to society

What drives antimicrobial resistance?

Inappropriate and irrational use of medicines provides favourable conditions for resistant microorganisms to emerge and spread. For example, when patients do not take the full course of a prescribed antimicrobial or when poor quality antimicrobials are used, resistant microorganisms can emerge and spread.

Facts on antimicrobial resistance

About 440 000 new cases of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) emerge annually, causing at least 150 000 deaths. Extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) has been reported in 64 countries to dat

What is Chennai 

Declaration on AMR ?

• A Roadmap to Tackle the Challenge of Antimicrobial Resistance - A Joint meeting of Medical Societies in India" was organized as a pre-conference symposium of the 2 ^nd annual conference of the Clinical Infectious Disease Society (CIDSCON 2012) at Chennai on 24 ^th August.

•  This was the first ever meeting of medical societies in India on issue of tackling resistance, with a plan to formulate a road map to tackle the global challenge of antimicrobial resistance from the Indian perspective. 

•  most medical societies in India, eminent policy makers from both central and state governments, representatives of World Health Organization, National Accreditation Board of Hospitals, Medical Council of India, Drug Controller General of India, and Indian Council of Medical Research along with well-known dignitaries in the Indian medical field.. 

• The intention was to gain a broad consensus and range of opinions to guide formation of the road map. The ethos of the meeting was very much not to look back but rather to look forward and make joint efforts to tackle the menace of antibiotic resistance. The Chennai Declaration will be submitted to all stake holders.

Some major recommendations made in the Declaration include 

• formulation of an effective national policy to control the rising trend of antimicrobial resistance, 
• a ban on the over-the-counter sale of antibiotics, and 
• changes in the medical education curriculum to include training on antibiotic usage and infection control.
• setting up of a National Task Force to guide and supervise the regional and State infection control committees.

========================================================================

‘The Chennai Declaration: A roadmap to tackle the challenge of antimicrobial resistance’ published in the latest edition of Indian Journal of Cancer has recommended that 

(The paper was drafted at the pre-conference symposium of the second annual conference of the Clinical Infectious Disease Society (CIDSCON) held in Chennai in August.)

• an Infection Control Team (ICT) be made mandatory in all hospitals. 
• Regulatory authorities and accreditation agencies such as the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and ISO must insist on a functioning ICT during the licensing and accreditation process
• The Medical Council of India should introduce one-week antibiotic stewardship and infection control training in the third, fourth and final year of MBBS and two-week training at the PG level.
•  the setting up of a National Task Force to guide and supervise the regional and State infection control committees
• National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers (NABH) insist on strict implementation of hospital antibiotic and infection control policy, during hospital accreditation and re-accreditation processes.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Most recent news

Support Chennai Declaration on antimicrobial resistance: U.K. report

• The annual report identifies antimicrobial resistance as a cross-societal and, therefore, cross-governmental issue that encompasses both a market failure to produce new antibiotics and the need for better antibiotic stewardship. 
• It also highlights the need for international action on antimicrobial resistance for which the U.K. government is well placed to lobby. 
• It calls upon the nations to take up the issue at G8, G20, Commonwealth, and other groups.