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| LETTER TO THE EDITOR |
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| Year : 2020 | Volume
: 11
| Issue : 1 | Page : 54-55 |
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Employment of AWaRe tool in reducing the emergence of antimicrobial resistance: The World Health Organization
Saurabh RamBihariLal Shrivastava1, Prateek Saurabh Shrivastava2
1 Vice-Principal Curriculum, Member of the Medical Education Unit and Institute Research Council, Department of Community Medicine, Shri Sathya Sai Medical College and Research Institute, Sri Balaji Vidyapeeth – Deemed to be University, Ammapettai, Nellikuppam, Chengalpattu, Kancheepuram, Tamil Nadu, India
2 Department of Community Medicine, Shri Sathya Sai Medical College and Research Institute, Sri Balaji Vidyapeeth – Deemed to be University, Ammapettai, Nellikuppam, Chengalpattu, Kancheepuram, Tamil Nadu, India
| Date of Submission | 21-Oct-2019 |
| Date of Acceptance | 04-Dec-2019 |
| Date of Web Publication | 12-Feb-2020 |
Correspondence Address:
Dr. Saurabh RamBihariLal Shrivastava
Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Shri Sathya Sai Medical College and Research Institute, Sri Balaji Vidyapeeth (SBV) – Deemed to be University, Tiruporur - Guduvancherry Main Road, Ammapettai, Nellikuppam, Chengalpattu, Kancheepuram, Tamil Nadu - 603 108
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None
DOI: 10.4103/INJMS.INJMS_136_19
How to cite this article:
Shrivastava SR, Shrivastava PS. Employment of AWaRe tool in reducing the emergence of antimicrobial resistance: The World Health Organization. Indian J Med Spec 2020;11:54-5 |
How to cite this URL:
Shrivastava SR, Shrivastava PS. Employment of AWaRe tool in reducing the emergence of antimicrobial resistance: The World Health Organization. Indian J Med Spec [serial online] 2020 [cited 2023 Jun 10];11:54-5. Available from: http://www.ijms.in/text.asp?2020/11/1/54/278089 |
Dear Editor,
The public health concern of antimicrobial resistance has emerged as a major challenge in ensuring effective prevention and treatment of the entire spectrum of infections attributed to microorganisms.[1],[2] The available estimates depict that close to 0.7 million people lose their lives owing to infections with drug-resistant agents.[1] Further, it has been estimated that more than 50% of the prescribed antibiotics are irrational and is the main reason for the emergence and expansion of the problem.[1],[2]
In fact, it has been anticipated that in the absence of a multisectoral response, a cumulative total of 25 million people will be pushed into extreme poverty, while almost 10 million deaths will occur worldwide on an annual basis by 2050.[1] The entire health sector on the global scale has started to experience the threat, and the days are not far, wherein most of the common infections will assume the status of being life threatening in the absence of availability of effective treatment.[2],[3] Moreover, the world is also experiencing the financial and health aftermath of the public health problem as the essential medicines have become ineffective.[2],[3]
Need of the hour
Acknowledging the magnitude of the problem and the universal nature, there is an indispensable need to mount a prompt and coordinated response, involving all the stakeholders, including the private sector and the general population.[3],[4]
AWaRe Tool
In order to help in the global mission to contain the problem, the World Health Organization has developed the AWaRe tool, which has the potential to minimize the transmission of resistance, reduce the adverse events and the involved expenditure, and ensure that the use of antibiotics can be more effective in the days to come.[4] The tool has classified the antibiotics into three major categories, namely access(employed in the treatment of most common and serious infections), watch (antibiotics that are available always in the health care system), and reserve (those antibiotics which are rarely prescribed and used only as an ultimate option).[4]
This categorization has been done to promote the use of antibiotics in the access categories, which have a narrow spectrum of activity and thus significantly minimize the risk of emergence of resistance.[1],[4] It has been targeted to enhance the proportion of consumption of antibiotics in the access group to a minimum of 60% and simultaneously reduce the proportion of drugs in the other two categories.[4] It is high time to realize that we have to maintain a balance between access and preservation, and the adoption of the tool will be a scientific approach to guide the policy-makers/health professionals to not only treat the patients but even minimize the use of these antibiotics which are at the risk of developing resistance.[1],[3],[4]
In conclusion, antimicrobial resistance is threatening to neutralize all the progress made in the health field, and thus, it is the need of the hour that the policy-makers should aim to reach equilibrium between the access to life saving antibiotics and decelerating the trends of drug resistance.
| References | |  |
| 1. | |
| 2. | Shrivastava SR, Shrivastava PS, Ramasamy J. Much more is expected from nations to counter antimicrobial resistance: World health organization. J Res Med Sci 2015;20:718-9.  |
| 3. | Friedrich MJ. UN: All-out effort needed to combat antimicrobial resistance. JAMA 2019;321:2273. |
| 4. | |
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