Loading…
An Indian Council of Medical Research multicentric surveillance study finds that infections from carbapenem-resistant Gram-negative bacteria kill more patients and cost far more to treat than drug-susceptible infections.
The study drew on the ICMR antimicrobial resistance surveillance network across 20 tertiary care hospitals, covering 159,336 hospitalised patients between April 2022 and April 2025.
Of the 26,213 patients with confirmed Gram-negative bacterial infections, 61.1% involved carbapenem-resistant organisms.
The relative risk of death was 1.16 to 1.43 times higher with resistant infections; mortality in resistant bloodstream infections ranged from 39.3% for E. coli to 50.8% for Acinetobacter baumannii.
Antibiotic costs ran roughly 1.1 to 2 times higher - about Rs 39,846 per patient for resistant E. coli infections against Rs 20,034 for susceptible ones.
Gram-negative bacteria have a thin peptidoglycan wall wrapped in an outer membrane of lipopolysaccharides, and stain pink in Gram staining. That outer membrane blocks many drugs, so carbapenems serve as the last-resort class. Resistance to them leaves few options.
Simple Analogy: Losing the spare key to a door you can no longer force open.
India's apex body for biomedical research; runs the national antimicrobial resistance surveillance network of tertiary hospitals and publishes annual AMR surveillance reports
Nodal ministry for the National Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance and for hospital infection prevention and control policy
Maintains the Global Antimicrobial Resistance and Use Surveillance System (GLASS) and the priority pathogens list, and observes World AMR Awareness Week from 18 to 24 November
Contain antimicrobial resistance through a five-year One Health roadmap spanning human health, animal health, agriculture and the environment, with more than 20 ministries and departments involved
Key: Launched on 18 November 2025 during World AMR Awareness Week; six strategic objectives covering awareness, surveillance, infection prevention, optimised antimicrobial use, research and governance, including expansion of the ICMR surveillance network and monitoring of antibiotic residues in wastewater
Generate national data on resistance patterns in major pathogens from tertiary care hospitals to guide treatment guidelines and policy
Key: Around 30 laboratories and hospitals contribute; this study used data from 20 of the tertiary care sites
GS Paper 2 > Issues Relating to Health; GS Paper 3 > Science and Technology: Developments and Applications
General Awareness > Biology and Health
General Awareness > National Reports and Studies
Which one of the following statements is not correct?
Answer: Hepatitis B, unlike Hepatitis C, does not have a vaccine.
The "PM-ABHIM" scheme is related to which sector?
Answer: Health Infrastructure
A last-resort class of beta-lactam antibiotics used against serious Gram-negative infections; resistance to them severely narrows treatment options
Bacteria with a thin peptidoglycan wall and an outer lipopolysaccharide membrane, staining pink in Gram staining; E. coli, Klebsiella, Acinetobacter and Pseudomonas are the major clinical ones
An approach recognising that human, animal and environmental health are interlinked, and the organising principle of NAP-AMR 2.0
The ratio of the probability of an outcome in an exposed group to that in an unexposed group; here, 1.16 to 1.43 for death with resistant infection