Context: Findings of the new study by researchers at the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) on Antibiotic prescription rates in India has been published.

Key findings:

1. India is one of the top users of antibiotics.
2. The private sector clocked high levels of antibiotic prescription rates (412 per 1,000 persons per year).
3. The highest rate was seen among children aged 0–4 years (636 per 1,000 persons) and the lowest in the age group 10–19 years (280 per 1,000 persons).
4. Per-capita antibiotic consumption in the retail sector has increased by around 22% in five years from 2012 to 2016.

What is it?

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is the ability of a microorganism (like bacteria, viruses, and some parasites) to stop an antimicrobial (such as antibiotics, antivirals and antimalarials) from working against it. As a result, standard treatments become ineffective, infections persist and may spread to others.

When an organism is resistant to more than one drug, it is said to be multidrug-resistant.

Why is Antibiotic Resistance a Big Deal?

The discovery of antibiotics less than a century ago was a turning point in public health that has saved countless lives. Although antibiotic resistance develops naturally with normal bacterial mutation, humans are speeding it up by using antibiotics improperly. According to a research, now, 2 million people a year in the US develop antibiotic-resistant infections, and 23,000 of them die of those infections.