On Sunday, 14th May, FABA in association with WTC Shamshabad, BIRAC, Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning and IFCAI held the first event of a recurring conference series on Antimicrobial Resistance Stewardship. The series aims to educate life science students and medical professionals on the importance of raising awareness of Antimicrobial resistance and strategies to tackle it.
Final year MBBS student, Jithin Reddy Vennapusa, kicked the event off with a brief introduction of Antimicrobial stewardship and its strategies in a healthcare setting. He also introduced the various strategies followed by WHO and Government of India to overcome the challenges of Antimicrobial resistance.
Prof. Reddanna and Dr. Uday Saxena addressed about the importance of AMR containment and thanked the speakers for contribution to the antimicrobial stewardship workshop.
Dr. Ranga Reddy Burri, President of IFCAI, talked about containment strategies of AMR; top down or bottom up. Being a physician himself, he talked about the history of Antimicrobial and the present scenario of effective therapies against superbugs and strategies to mitigate it for future generations.
During her presentation, Dr. Madhvi Rao, Chief Manager, BIRAC, emphasised the need for innovative solutions to address the growing problem of AMR, which poses a significant threat to public health and the economy. Dr. Madhvi also discussed BIRAC’s various initiatives aimed at fostering biotechnology innovation and entrepreneurship. These programmes include funding assistance, mentoring, and capacity building, among others.
Dr. Pradeep SSSHIL – talked about his tool known as AMRx, a Digital Technology enabled UTI and AMR prediction system to support empirical antibiotic prescription. He showed the capabilities of the tool, it’s high specificity and sensitivity of diagnosis and it’s supporting empirical treatment. He emphasised on the potential nationwide usage of this tool to accurately diagnose UTIs and prevent Antimicrobial resistance.
Mr. Prabhav Kashyap, a final year medical student presented his paper – From Antibiotic Resistance to Antibiotic Renaissance: A New Era in Helicobacter Pylori Treatment. He talked about his research paper, where he identified several key lapses in the accurate diagnosis and treatment of H. pylori infections and the importance of Antimicrobial stewardship to eradicate resistant infections of H. pylori
Dr. Laxmi – prof from Kamineni – as a clinical microbiologist she talked about the real life scenario in the clinical setting and how patients present with various resistant bacteria and how physicians can accurately diagnose infections based on susceptibility testing. Dr. Ranga Reddy, Dr. Laxmi, Dr. Pradeep discussed the possibility of implementing AMRx tool in sentinel sites to improve the data collection and accuracy of the tool.
In conclusion, the conference on Antimicrobial Resistance Stewardship Series, organized by FABA successfully brought together medical professionals, life science students, and experts in the field to discuss the importance of raising awareness about Antimicrobial resistance and strategies to tackle it. The event highlighted innovative solutions, tools, and research that can help in the containment of AMR and emphasized the need for collaboration and continuous learning through the recurring series. The participants also explored the potential of implementing the AMRx tool in sentinel sites to improve data collection and accuracy, further strengthening the fight against Antimicrobial resistance.
