Antimicrobial resistance program initiative: Time to involve children for effective implementation

Dear Editor, Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) can be best described as a silent pandemic and will become more strengthened and frightful in coming years. It has the potential to affect all, more so to the lower economic groups due to escalating treatment costs in cases of resistance to lower group of antibiotics.[1] Various national and international organizations are taking steps and preparing action plans to reduce the AMR on an urgent basis. AMR can affect all; hence, it should be dealt with at every level and not be left only to the regulatory authorities. It is not an isolated and problem of microbiologists or clinicians anymore. A collective effort from everyone is needed. Indian medical education system revised the MBBS curriculum which is known as Competency-based Medical Education (CBME) as is the need of the hour. Topics about the recent concerns like AMR along with antimicrobial stewardship program (AMSP) have been added to the CBME curriculum which was not there previously so that it gets ingrained in budding physicians. Launching an AMSP in a setup is relatively easy but effective implementation of it is challenging. Hard negotiations with clinicians and to fight age-old, but redundant norms are sometimes necessary. All these efforts take time to bear fruit, so we should not stop at initial teething issues.[2] AMR is also a major factor in tackling emerging and reemerging infections. Majority of the pandemics are caused by microbes. Development of resistance against the microbes has potential to create another pandemic in the very near future.[3] A control over antimicrobial resistance can potentially avoid another pandemic catastrophic. Spreading awareness through conference, seminar and webinar to educate and update the clinicians, steps are already in place. We should have to focus there to prevent an upsurge of the AMR pandemic in our country and over the globe.[4] The next level should be the integration of AMSP to school level. A learned child can stop the abuse of antibiotic at his/her home and send a larger message across. Just a simple message like, not to use antibiotics for common cold, diarrhea can make a huge difference in consumption and sale of antibiotics.[5] Molnar has suggested many points about the role children can play in combating AMR. Children are key decision-makers nowadays at many places. Furthermore, they themselves are at the end of consumption of antibiotics. Hence, they play a crucial role in their future. Modifications in science literature for discussing the key issue like they have done for vaccinations can bear fruits in future.[6] Spreading a simple message through the audio/visual techniques such as posters, paintings, and short video clips can be a huge help through awareness in population. Several games are available in the literature which can be inculcated at various stages of formative years when introduced can be used for awareness of AMR. Debating, quizzes in high schools, and societies can also be introduced for fun quotient.[7] We know this thing is not easy as we are saying but each and every new initiative is difficult to perform in the initiation phase. The importance of the motive behind the action should be the focus this time, further success and hurdle will guide for modification of the program. It is up to the policy makers to decide, at which stage they want to integrate or involve children in this. Author contributions NKD: concept and manuscript writing; SC: final approval of manuscript; GY: literature search; SM: manuscript review and revision. Data availability statement Data sharing not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated and/or analyzed during the current study. Financial support and sponsorship Nil. Conflicts of interest There are no conflicts of interest.