Kerala Becomes the First in the Country to Release District-Level Antibiogram for Five Districts

Thiruvananthapuram: The district-level Antibiogram for five districts of 2025 has been released in Keralam. This marks the first time in the country that a state has released a district-level Antibiogram. In 2024, the Antibiogram for the Ernakulam district was released. This year, the Health Minister Veena George launched the Antibiograms for the districts of Thiruvananthapuram, Alappuzha, Pathanamthitta, Kottayam, and Thrissur. This was made possible by setting up AMR surveillance centers in all districts and extending the Anti-Microbial Resistance (AMR) surveillance network to all districts in a hub-and-spoke model.

In 2022, under the current government's leadership, the country’s first Antibiogram was released. Kerala is the only state in the country that releases an Antibiogram every year. Through this, the antibiotic resistance levels in tertiary care hospitals are evaluated. However, the district-level Antibiogram also helps assess the antibiotic resistance levels in primary and secondary care hospitals. This enables clear guidelines on which antibiotics should be used at each level of the healthcare system.

Kerala's Anti-Microbial Resistance Strategic Action Plan (KARSAP) and Kerala Anti-Microbial Resistance Surveillance Network (KARS Net) were formed to strengthen AMR control. Although the antibiotic resistance rate in the state’s reports has decreased compared to previous years, it is still considered a significant threat. As part of resistance evaluation, laboratory networks were progressively developed across all districts. A comprehensive hub-and-spoke model was implemented to track antibiotic resistance levels at primary, secondary, and tertiary care hospitals, making Kerala the only state to adopt this approach.

Kerala’s AMR control has gained international recognition. It was the first place in the world where the World Health Organisation developed and implemented a culture reporting format based on the AMR metrics it prescribed. In addition to the guidelines for the Antibiotic Literate Kerala initiative, comprehensive operational guidelines for smart antibiotic hospitals and panchayats were also released. Kerala introduced the concept of Antibiotic Literate Panchayats, a groundbreaking initiative in the world as part of the Antibiotic Literate Kerala program. Furthermore, based on established criteria, it was decided to color-code all hospitals in Kerala to monitor and evaluate AMR control.