The misuse of antimicrobials such as antibiotics and antifungals are contributing to antimicrobial resistance (AMR), a major public health challenge in India. By 2050, it is estimated1 that AMR will take the life of 2 million Indians every year, unless we do something about it now! The Indian government has repeatedly stated its commitment to tackle AMR at every level.

Recognizing the urgency of this situation, Pfizer has focused on addressing the challenge on several fronts. We began with the successful launch of a high-decibel public awareness campaign ‘AMR ko Aao Milkar Rokein’ (Let us work together to curb AMR) in January 2019. 

With a clear priority to support national health programs, we have now partnered with the NGO Americares India Foundation (AIF) to roll out two distinct initiatives that aim to reduce the increasing antimicrobial resistance in India.

• ​​​​​​​The flagship programme under this umbrella is Project Parivartan that focuses on addressing the current infection prevention and control (IPC) challenges in healthcare facilities. This is a multi-year project that Pfizer supports to develop a model for institutional capacity building and deliver facility-based IPC and antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) training in small and mid-size hospitals across India. The goal is to demonstrate that a tangible impact on infection prevention can be made through antimicrobial stewardship activities to improve key outcome indicators in hospitals, such as a reduction in hospital acquired infections.

• The Pfizer and AIF Online Learning Platform is designed to ensure that healthcare workers across India have access to quality training and certification on IPC. The platform is available in multiple languages. This platform delivers IPC content and training to all categories of healthcare workers and is free of cost.

​​​​​​​1.    Dixit A, Kumar N, Kumar S, Trigun V. Antimicrobial resistance: Progress in the decade since emergence of New Delhi metallo-β-lactamase in India. Indian J Community Med 2019;44:4-8