Projects

PREVENT IT | Risk Management and Prevention of Antibiotics Resistance

India Partners: Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Chitkara University Punjab, Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology Orissa,  Manipal Academy of Higher Education Karnataka, Symbiosis International (Deemed University) Maharastra, Rural Institute for People’s Enlightenment Tirupati Andhra Pradesh, Voluntary Health Association of Tripura.

International Partners: University of Maastricht Netherlands, Rīga Stradiņš University Latvia, University of Milan Italy, The Catholica University Portugal

Project In-charge for Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham: Dr. Sanjeev. K. Singh, Chief Medical Superintendant, Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences.

Research Area: Antibiotic Resistance, Health Sciences

Funding Agency: Erasmus+ Programme of European Union

Period: 2019 to 2022

PREVENT IT | Risk Management and Prevention of Antibiotics Resistance is a three-year (2019-2021) Higher Education Capacity Building project (CBHE), funded by the European Commission Erasmus+ programme (2014-2020). The vision of the project is to contribute to a future where every individual is aware of antibiotics resistance and is empowered with the right education to address the issue.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), by 2050 antimicrobial resistance is expected to be the first cause of death, creating more causalities than cancer and diabetes combined.  It also highlighted that awareness and understanding of ABR, through effective communication, education, and training should be addressed and improved.

A preliminary study conducted by the PREVENT IT consortium highlighted that the absence of academic modules on risk management and prevention of ABR, along with low awareness in Indian society. European universities are assisting the Indian universities and NGOs to design new curricula on ABR. This project aims at addressing these challenges, by amongst others offering online courses – creating awareness sessions including through social media – setting up a living lab where health science experts, students and health care personnel can be trained.

Coordinated by Chitkara University Punjab, the PREVENT IT Indo-European consortium is composed of four European universities – the Rīga Stradiņš University, the University of Milan, the University of Maastricht, The Catholica University Portugal and the – collaborating with five Indian Universities, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Symbiosis International (deemed) University  – and two Indian non-governmental organizations from Rural Institute for People’s Enlightenment and Voluntary Health Association of Tripura.

At AIMS, the project has successfully influenced the curricula across MBBS, BDS, BSc Nursing, BPharm, MPharm, PharmD, BSc Respiratory Therapy and BSc Physician Assistant courses to include ABR related topics into the syllabus.

Project activities and outcomes

The activities of the Preventit project, co-funded by the Erasmus+ program of the European Union, can broadly be categorized into Curricula-related activities and dissemination activities.

Curricula related activities

The project successfully influenced various medical education courses by modifying the existing curricula or creating new courses at graduate or post-graduate levels at the health science campus of Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham. All the new/ modified courses went through the curriculum committee, board of studies, and academic council. Finally, they got integrated into the existing syllabus of various programs. Six new courses and sevenmodified courses consisting of topics related to Antibiotic resistance were planned and implemented across multiple schools at AVVP as part of the PreventIt project.

Dissemination events

• Preventit webinars

The Covid pandemic took a toll on onsite awareness promotion activities. But, during the pandemic time, the project came up with a series of webinars. The associate researcher was involved in planning and conducting the webinars. The very first webinar,”Superbugs- The upcoming pandemic,” was delivered by Dr. Sanjeev.K.Singh, Medical director, AIMS Faridabad. The link to the recorded version of this webinar is available Here

AIMS Cochin hosted another webinar on “One health: Links in the spread of antibiotic resistance” by Dr. B Sunil. The link to the recorded version of this webinar is available here

The third webinar hosted by AIMS Cochin was on “United to Preserve Antibiotics” by Dr. Jyoti Joshi during the world antibiotic awareness week 2020. The link to the recorded version of this webinar is available at Link

The College of Nursing, Amrita University, Cochin (PREVENT-IT consortium organization) conducted a national level webinar titled “Antimicrobial resistance- a growing concern” on 18th November 2020. The target audience was nursing students and faculties all over India. Total participants were 287 in number. The speakers were Dr. Dona Boban (Associate researcher of Preventit project) who talked on AMR threats and challenges, and Dr. Merlin Moni talked about AMR- A global concern.

On the 21^stof November 2020 webinar titled, ‘Use and misuse of antibiotics in dental practices’ was conducted by Dr. Dona Boban, Associate Researcher, Prevent It,AmritaVishwaVidyapeetham.The audience comprised the dental house surgeons, post-graduatestudents,dentalfaculties,and practitioners.

• International workshops

We know that Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) is one of the top 10 global public health threats. AMR is happening right now everywhere. It’s high time we need to adopt strategies to curb this crisis. Antimicrobial stewardship and infection control practices are the best weapons against AMR. The International Workshop on “Curb Antimicrobial Resistance: Antimicrobial Stewardship and Infection Control Practices” by Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham aimed to share more detailed information on how these practices can be implemented in different healthcare setups and can help in combating AMR. The recorded version is available at the YouTube link

• Man Versus Microbes: Who will win? A school event

It is crucial to educate school children about antibiotic resistance. To help understand the crux of the ABR issue, the researchers of project Preventit addressed around 80 students from Chitkara International School, Chandigarh. The key idea of the session was to raise awareness about ABR and empower students with the knowledge to manage situations at the individual level using simple preventive strategies. The recorded version is available at the YouTube link

• Antibiotic stewardship in dentistry- 2-day onsite event at Amrita School of Dentistry

Approximately 25 millioncourses of antibiotics are prescribed every year globally,out of which dentists prescribe 10%. The startling fact is that 80% of these prescriptions by the dentist areinappropriate. The right time to inculcate accurate knowledge and bring behavior change is during any profession’s early- career phase.Around 40 Dentist interns were addressed during this two days onsite event. The eventcovered the basics of antibiotics, the extent of inappropriate antibiotic prescriptions, adetailed overview of ABR, andcase scenarios.

• Free Massive Open Online Courses

The project has launched 4 different Massive Open Online Courses, targeting various audiences on 14^th July 2022. These are free certification courses. Once the participant completes the course, the participant will get an online certificate with the logos of Erasmus+, Preventit and 9 partner universities (From India and Europe). This can be a valuable addition to the participant’s academics. The online courses are self paced.  The details of the MOOC are: