India demonstrates high political leadership for preventing antimicrobial resistance
SHOBHA SHUKLA - CNS
Do not self-prescribe antibiotics. Use antibiotic only upon medical prescription, says Indian PM Modi
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Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is among the top 10 global health threats - and is also a threat to food safety and security and environment. AMR warrants more robust action to stop misuse and overuse of antimicrobial medicines in all sectors with One Health approach. World leaders have come together twice earlier in 2016 and 2024 at United Nations General Assembly High Level Meetings, and adopted Political Declarations with important time-bound commitments that have spurred stronger global response. But we need more country-level leadership at highest levels of echelons of power and sub-national levels to spark lasting change for health security.
AMR concerns all of us, says Indian PM
"Medicines require guidance, and antibiotics require doctors." Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 28th December 2025 gave a clear message to the people to not take antibiotics at their own discretion - rather take them only when prescribed by medical experts.
The government of India's apex and prestigious medical research body - Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) - released an important report recently, which states that antibiotics are proving ineffective against many diseases like pneumonia and urinary tract infections. According to ICMR report, a major reason for this is people's indiscriminate use of antibiotics. Antibiotics are not medicines that should be taken mindlessly. They should be used only upon medical advice.
"In the final #MannKiBaat of 2025, our PM has cautioned the country on increasing trends of antibiotic resistance. For this, he referred to ICMR's recently published AMR Research and Surveillance Network Report. As per that report, we are seeing increasing levels of resistance to commonly used antibiotics in patients from 25 hospitals across the country. This paints a very grim scenario because patients having drug-resistant infections have to spend more money on treatment, stay longer in the hospitals, and sometimes are not able to recover from these infections leading to their untimely death. AMR is driven by misuse and overuse of antimicrobial medicines. Patients should not consume antibiotics without prescription from the treating doctors," said Dr Kamini Walia who heads ICMR AMR Surveillance Network and is among the senior-most ICMR scientists (Scientist-G).
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