NEW DELHI: Prompted by the Union health ministry, the medical education regulator has asked all medical colleges and hospitals to frame guidelines for antibiotic uses amid concerns about growing antimicrobial resistance.
In a letter issued to institutions under it, the National Medical Commission, citing a communiqué by Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan, has said that indiscriminate use of antimicrobial and development of AMR may be leading to increased incidences of infections and avoidable morbidity and mortality.
The commission has also nudged the medical colleges to activate Hospital Infection Control Committee and Antimicrobial Stewardship Committees. AMR is defined as the capacity of the pathogens such as fungi, parasites, bacteria, to evolve and stop responding to medicines meant to kill them.
“All hospitals and medical colleges should increase the activity of both the committees and prepare guidelines for antibiotic use in their hospitals depending on prevalent organisms and antimicrobial sensitivity,” says the letter.
The communiqué, sent by Bhushan to the NMC last week meanwhile also asked the regulator to amend the current medicine syllabus with clear norms on when not to prescribe antibiotics for patients as this category of drugs is often abused by physicians.
All clinical subjects in nursing and medical education must include practical education and evaluation on AMR, judicious use of antimicrobials, antimicrobial stewardship and infection prevention and control, he had emphasised.