A panel of international experts in infectious diseases has arrived in the city to put their heads together with doctors here and devise a strategy to fight anti-microbial resistance through suitable policies and guidelines for the use of antibiotics.
The 2-day conference of the Clinical Infectious Diseases Society was inaugurated in the city on Friday by DR Prathap Reddy, chairman, Apollo hospitals.
Non-communicable diseases like diabetes and heart disease may be the more glamorous and therefore more visible aspect of healthcare right now, but infectious diseases are still the leading cause of death in the country.
“The development of antibiotics and other anti-microbials has played an important role in the fight against infectious diseases, but microorganisms can develop resistance to the drugs used against them.
The more widely antibiotics are used, the more likely it is that antimicrobial-resistant strains of microorganisms will emerge,” stressed Dr Prathap Reddy.
The workshops and scientific sessions will discuss issues like childhood immunization, as half the population of Indian children is not immunized fully.
The problem of infection control in the hospital and ICU set-up will also be deliberated upon. Representatives from WHO as well as the state and central governments will be attending the conference.
“This is the second annual conference of the society, and we aim to increase the awareness on infectious diseases,” said Dr V Ramasbramanian among general practitioners and family physicians.
There are special tracks for microbiologists and special sessions of the treatment of Tuberculosis and HIV, apart from other tropical diseases,” said Dr V Ramasbramanian, consultant infectious disease specialist.