New Delhi: The Union health ministry is likely to launch the second edition of National Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance — or NAP 2.0 — to address the increasing instances to disease-causing microbes developing resistance to medicines, people familiar with the matter said on Friday.

“Learning[s] from the first NAP will be used to modify the plan further to meet the current requirements. Antimicrobial resistance is a burning issue and lots of resources are being devoted to combat this growing public health concern. It was also an integral part of the recently concluded G20 Summit,” a senior government official said, requesting anonymity.

Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) occurs when microbes such as bacteria, viruses and fungi change over time and stop responding to antimicrobial medicines, making infections harder to treat and increasing the risk of disease spread, severe illness and death.

During the G20 Submit under India’s presidency last month, member countries prioritised tackling antimicrobial resistance following the One Health approach through research and development, infection prevention and control, as well as antimicrobial stewardship efforts within respective national action plans through AMR and antimicrobial consumption surveillance.

“The human and economic toll of rising AMR could easily spiral out of control. Fortunately, G20 world leaders recognise AMR as a real threat to global economic development and prosperity. This commitment should now translate into action in terms of better implementation of National Action plans which can in turn translate into lives saved,” Kamini Walia, senior scientist and programme officer AMR, Indian Council of Medical Research said.

“The focus on facilitating equitable access to safe, effective, quality-assured, and affordable vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics, and other medical countermeasures, especially in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs), least developed countries (LDCs) and small island developing states (SIDS), will also strengthen the AMR containment efforts,” Walia added.

According to the World Health Organisation, AMR led to deaths of close to 5 million people across the globe in 2019. If not taken action, AMR could cost $100 trillion to the world’s economy by 2050, the UN body said.

In June, then health secretary Rajesh Bhushan, chaired an inter-sectoral coordination committee meeting on antimicrobial resistance.

“AMR cannot be tackled in a linear and singular manner. As the issues and action points are multi-agency across the government and non-government sectors, the action plan to address it requires the joint efforts of all stakeholders through a unified mission mode approach,” he had said after the meeting. “The partner ministries and departments need to work in a convergent mode with whole of government approach to bring together the expertise and domain knowledge for a comprehensive action plan with key performance indicators that can be periodically monitored.”

The initiatives being discussed include an Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) unit to be established at the National Centre for Disease Control to draft the National IPC programme and linkages with IPC under other vertical health programmes. The health ministry also plans to develop a digital platform to collect and collate national and state level data on antimicrobial consumption and duly converging human, animal, environment and food sector, focus on creation of state-specific action plans on AMR, and involve research agencies to develop an integrated research agenda on AMR.

The strategic objectives of India’s action plan include enhancing awareness and understanding among people through communication; increasing knowledge and evidence through enhanced surveillance of AMR in human, animal and the environment through the National AMR Surveillance Network and state surveillance networks; infection prevention and control; anti-microbial stewardship; bringing innovative research and development in new medicines and technologies; and forging national, sub-national, and international research and technology collaborations.

The original NAP-AMR focusing on One Health approach was launched in 2017, with the aim of involving various stakeholder ministries and departments to make concerted efforts to deal with the emerging threat.