Antimicrobial resistance a growing threat, warn experts

At 23, Bhakti Chavan was about to complete her Master’s in biotechnology when a swelling on her neck turned her world upside down. It wasn’t cancer, it wasn’t a common infection. It was an extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) —a form of TB that doesn’t respond to even second-line antibiotics. The medicines she studied in textbooks failed her. For two years, she endured painful, toxic treatments, some injected daily, not knowing if she would survive.

Chavan shared her story on Thursday at the Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Media Workshop hosted by ReAct Asia Pacific, an international network working on antimicrobial resistance, at the Press Club of India in Delhi, offering a first-hand account of the human cost of AMR — a silent and escalating global health emergency.

AMR refers to the ability of microorganisms like bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites to resist the effects of medications that once killed them. This makes infections harder to treat, increasing the risk of disease spread, severe illness and death.

“If it happened to me, it can happen to anyone,” said Chavan who is now a member of the WHO Task Force of AMR Survivors.

The sessions addressed how India is grappling with rising resistance to antibiotics, antivirals, antifungals and antiparasitics, largely driven by unregulated use in humans, animals and agriculture.

In 2021, AMR was linked to 4.71 million deaths globally, with 1.14 million deaths directly caused by resistant bacterial infections. Projections indicate that by 2050, this number could rise to 10 million deaths annually — a staggering one death every three seconds.

“AMR is a pandemic in waiting,” warned Dr Narendra Saini, former Secretary General of the Indian Medical Association and Chairman of the IMA AMR Committee.

“No new antibiotic molecules have been developed in the past two decades. Existing ones are failing,” he said.

Experts called for a ‘One Health’ approach — an integrated method recognising that human health is deeply linked with animal and environmental health. Dr Chanchal Bhattacharya, specialist in veterinary medicine, pointed to the unchecked use of antibiotics in livestock and the poor diagnostic systems in veterinary care.

Speaking on the role of climate change in the spread of AMR, Rajeshwari Sinha of the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a research and advocacy organisation working on the environment, explained that rising temperatures can accelerate the growth of bacteria and microbes, including drug-resistant strains.

Satish Sinha of Toxics Link, a Delhi-based NGO on environment, focusing on chemical and waste management, highlighted how antibiotic residues from pharmaceutical factories, hospitals and poultry farms are polluting rivers and soils, breeding resistant microbes beyond clinical settings.

“We have conducted surveys of five rivers across the country and all of them were found to have antibiotics. This water is being used for drinking, farming and so on,” Sinha added.

Pooja Mishra, an HIV survivor, shared how difficult treatment becomes when drug resistance enters the picture. After trying seven antibiotic combinations, only one finally worked for her.

“The bacteria are evolving faster than the medicines we’re making,” she said.

Sangeeta Sharma, president of the Delhi Society for Promotion of Rational Use of Drugs, said, “Around 80 per cent of antibiotic use in India is happening in the community, outside hospitals, often without prescriptions.”

“Over the counter (OTC) use and sale of antibiotics must stop. We need to educate the citizens and the doctors about AMR,” she added.