AMR (Antimicrobial Resistance) week concludes at DMCH

Ludhiana, November 24, 2023: World AMR Awareness Week is a global campaign that is celebrated annually from 18th to 24th November, to improve awareness and understanding of AMR (Antimicrobial Resistance) .The theme of WAAW 2023 is ‘Preventing antimicrobial resistance together’.

Principal, Dr. Sandeep Puri  told that antimicrobial resistance (AMR) represents a major global threat across human, animal, plant food and environmental sectors, threatening the effective treatment of infections caused by bacteria, parasites, viruses and fungi, resulting in prolonged illness and increased mortality.

Dr. Ashwani K Chaudhary, Medical Supdt. reiterated the fact that WHO has declared AMR as one of the top 10 global public health threats facing humanity.

Dr. Sandeep Kaushal, Dean Academics and Professor & Head Department of Pharmacology stated that AMR occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites change over time and no longer respond to medicines, making infections harder to treat and increasing the risk of disease spread, severe illness and death.

Dr. Veenu Gupta, Professor  & Head Microbiology, shared that many illnesses like common cold do not require antibiotic treatment. We must use antibiotics only when prescribed by a doctor, complete the entire course and never to self-medicate said Dr Veenu.

The Dept. of Microbiology, DMC&H, conducted various activities to spread awareness on the issue of AMR. PG residents, MBBS and Nursing students were apprised about Overview of AMR (Dr. Veenu Gupta, Prof.& Head Microbiology), Management of MDROs (Dr. Gunchan Paul, Prof. Critical Care), Antimicrobial stewardship program (Dr. Jyoti Chaudhary, Assoc. Prof. Microbiology) and Preventing spread of AMR in hospital & community (Dr. Anurag Chaudhary, Prof.& Head Community Medicine). Dr. Shalini Arora, Prof. Pharmacology, and Dr. Menal Gupta, Asst. Prof. Microbiology, spoke about prescription writing and current situation of AMR.

A poster/ slogan competition was also organized in which MBBS Batch 2021 which was judged by Dr Hitant Vohra (HOD Anatomy), Dr Bharti Mahajan and  Dr Kiran Deep Kaur (Deptt of Pharmacology) Dr Vidushi Gupta (Deptt. Of Physiology) and Dr Gautam Biswas (HOD Forensic Medicine) Rahul Garg, Muskan, Nandini, Nandita, Narender and Nikhil, were awarded the first prirze. Among B.Sc. Nursing students,slogans by Gurleen, Amandeep and Amanpreet Kaur were adjudged as first, second and third respectively. The students enthusiastically presented role plays on this issue, which were both informative and entertaining. Infection Control Nurses conducted awareness talks for general public and patients in various clinical areas and OPDs.