This is the fifth comprehensive report on patterns and trends in antimicrobial resistance. Due to antimicrobial resistance, a significant portion of patients in India may no longer benefit from carbapenem, a potent antibiotic used mostly in ICU settings to treat pneumonia and septicemia. Senior Dr. Kamini Walia stated that the data analysis performed between January 1 and December 31, 2021, hinted towards a continuous increase in drug-resistant bacteria, resulting in difficulty treating specific diseases with available treatments. The network's data collection has made it possible to compile information on the country's six pathogenic groupings with regard to antibiotic resistance. Imipenem, which is used to treat illnesses brought on by the bacteria E. coli, has seen an increase in resistance from 2016 to 2021, according to an ICMR analysis. Klebsiella pneumoniae's susceptibility to a certain drug decreased with time, going from 65% in 2010 to 45% in 2020 and 43% in 2021. Here, the word "susceptibility" refers to how susceptible the bacteria are to the antibiotic. E. coli isolates with carbapenem resistance K. coli and E. Treatment of carbapenem-resistant infections is exceedingly difficult because pneumoniae are also resistant to other antimicrobials. Acinetobacter baumannii infections were the cause of 87.5% of the research participants' resistance to the broad-spectrum antibiotic carbapenem, which reduced the number of available treatments. According to the study, minocycline is the second-most susceptible antibiotic for Acinetobacter baumannii after colistin, with a susceptibility of close to 50% for the same bacteria. The susceptibility to all the main antipseudomonal drugs has steadily increased in Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a different bacterium that causes infections in the blood, lungs (pneumonia), or other parts of the body after surgery, according to Dr. Walia. To encourage the wise use of antibiotics, diagnostic labs need to be strengthened and improved. Antibiotic prescriptions ought to be based on verified diagnoses rather than speculative ones. According to Dr. Walia, a number of broad-spectrum antibiotics are being utilised to treat syndromes. Over the past few years, the ICMR AMR network has grown, and today, a large number of labs provide antifungal susceptibility rates, providing an idea of antifungal resistance rates. During the Covid epidemic, antifungals were very widely used. The ICMR report states that the susceptibility to erythromycin, clindamycin, ciprofloxacin, co-trimoxazole, and high-level mupirocin was more pronounced in MSSA (Methicillin-Sensitive Staphylococcus Aureus) than in multi-drug resistant strains like MRSA in Staphylococcus aureus, which causes a wide variety of clinical diseases like skin infections like (Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus).

Reference: - https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/health/sustained-rise-in-antimicrobial-resistance-in-india-icmr-study/article65874196.ece