Health C. Damodar Raja Narasimha has further added that now Telangana has become the seventh state to implement its own action plan to address Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) alongside other states in India.
The Minister made this announcement today during the inaugural session of the Global South Conference on Infection Control, Prevention and Antimicrobial Stewardship (G-SPARC) at the Shilpakala Vedika in Hyderabad on October 3, 2024.
Action plan in formulation stage
While addressing the gathering, the Minister spoke about AMR and said it was one such phenomenon that needed immediate solution, ‘it’s one of the challenges that we face in our era’, he added. Furthermore, he elaborated that the state action plan is currently under construction and will be implemented very soon. He also gave an assurance that appropriate actions would be taken to those concerned.
Health Secretary Christina Z. Chongthu shared the same views as the minister as she listed AMR as one of the ten common threats that India is likely to experience. “If we don’t take cognizance of the issue now, it will cause serious problems in the years to come,” she stated with a warning. Ms. Chongthu agreed that the rapid rise in antibiotic consumption and AMR rates are serious issues, and that the State’s policy bears such issues in mind. Ms. Christina also referred to the National Action Plan on AMR for India, which came into force in 2017 and mentioned that states initiated their own action plans in the course of time. She underscored the necessity of such types of conferences like G-SPARC in these global interlinkages for the dissemination and acquisition of knowledge concerning infection sheltering. “Telangana has made a good beginning in addressing AMR through National Health Mission and Telangana Vaidya Vidhana Parishad (TVVP), but lot more needs to be done,” she added.
The conference also had the inauguration with the speeches of Dr. Ranga Reddy Burri, G-SPARC chairperson, co-chair Govind Hari, the ex-Kerala Health Minister K.K. Shailaja and other conspects participants.
