Rethinking solutions to prevent infections and tackle AMR

Sumit Marwah, CEO and Director, Dispoline Inprev gave a contrarian view on the subject of infection control and AMR. His urged the audience to rethink on their infection control and AMR strategies.

He started off by talking about the need to build a strong infrastructure for the ageing population of India. He then talked about the WHO report and recommendations on infection control and AMR. Marwah also put forward the Former British Prime Minister’s report on AMR that discloses that by 2050 around 10 million lives will be at stake world over. According to the report, India will have around two million deaths due to AMR. The report also said that AMR will cost around $ 100 trillion GDP lose, globally.

He went on to inform that the earth could contain one trillion microbial species but humans know only about .0001 per cent of them. 99.999 per cent of microbes are yet to be discovered. “This is dangerous and we do not know what is coming. I think we take this subject very lightly,” he said.

Another report that he presented by Stanford University showed that 99 per cent of the microbes in our bodies are still a total mystery to science. For every human cell, there are 1.3 microbes and many are unknown to humans.

Marwah anticipated that in the coming years, youngsters learning medical science would have a subject on bacterial communication which is crucial even in today’s context. He further went on to say, “I think microbes are currently playing with us, trying to adapt and develop resistance. We think we are above them and then one Ebola comes in, and the entire world is taken aback; wondering how do we control it.”

He then presented another report that disclosed the amount of antibiotics in meat. Netherlands tops this list where around 200 mg per kg of antibiotics are found in their meat, followed by France, the UK, Czech Republican, Switzerland, Germany and more. Marwah urged the audience to enquire for the meat which is antibiotic free. “It is an individual start that is required to curb this menace,” he urged.

“Research from an institute in Mengaluru revealed that a lot of microbes are being carried by a doctor’s coat”, he added while mentioning about the need to use sterilised products. He finally talked about the importance of how sterilisation can help reduce AMR and control infection spread. He summed up by recommending that hospitals should continue to motivate the house-keeping staff in order to reduce the spread of microbes.