Health experts of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) said that increased usage of antibiotics during COVID-19 can lead to more antimicrobial resistance.
“The widespread use of hand-sanitisers and antimicrobial soaps can further worsen the situation,” they said.
Antimicrobial resistance is the ability of a pathogenic microbe to develop a resistance to the effects of an antimicrobial medication.
Experts fear that if drug resistance is not managed, then by 2050 around 10 million human lives could be at risk every year.
This was said while discussing the various aspects of antimicrobial resistance in a two-day international webinar on antibiotic resistance.
The webinar was jointly organised by AIIMS and American Society for Microbiology.
The health experts in the webinar spoke about how the COVID-19 pandemic jolted the entire world and significantly impacted the focus of health facilities towards antimicrobial resistance.
“It has been estimated that as we reach the year 2050, about 10 million human lives could be at risk every year if we do not manage the increasing drug resistance,” the experts said.
“The widespread use of hand sanitisers and antimicrobial soaps which has especially increased multifold during the COVID-19 pandemic can worsen the situation,” they added.
It may be mentioned here that the antimicrobial resistance has outpaced the development of newer antimicrobials.