‘It can transform our understanding of AMR’: Working with India’s rural clinics to control drug resistance

[Originally published on Wellcome]

Drug-resistant infections are linked to over a million deaths a year in India. A health crisis compounded by the country’s healthcare inequalities. Dr Gautham and her team are working with rural healthcare providers to better understand the challenges of tackling AMR in these settings – and co-develop innovative solutions.

India is home to the world’s largest rural population — an estimated 900 million people.

Across this patchwork of towns, villages and farmlands, access to formal healthcare is extremely limited. Despite the country’s extensive private medical system, most doctors and hospitals are found in cities.

“The moment you leave cities behind, there are no qualified doctors around. People have to travel to the nearest urban centre or government health centre if they want to access a qualified doctor,” says Dr Meenakshi Gautham, Assistant Professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and Project Leader of One Health Antimicrobial Stewardship for Informal Health Systems (OASIS).

In India, Gautham grew up away from rural life, in the capital city of New Delhi. She trained as a social scientist and then pursued a career in public health. As she began working more closely with rural communities, she was struck by the exceptional contrast in healthcare availability.

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