ANTIBIOTICS STEWARDSHIP

Inappropriate antibiotic use and antibiotic resistance are now major global issues. Antimicrobial stewardship programmes are increasingly being used to optimize antibiotic prescribing in acute care. Antibiotic resistance has become a global menace. As the resistance patterns and numbers are progressively increasing, it has become a major cause of morbidity and mortality in hospitalized patients, especially children. Efforts are being put world-over to curb the rising resistance by various means, especially by promoting Antibiotic Stewardship Program. These are cluster of interventions targeted towards the improvement and monitoring of appropriate antimicrobial use by selecting the most optimal drug regimen, including the type of drug used, the dose, the duration of therapy and the route of administration. India has also been working consistently to control antibiotic resistance and promote implementation of antibiotic stewardship program. Although the success rates are yet not very high, due to lot of barriers, but it is important to take measures to overcome the barriers and curb the rising resistance at the earliest.