Even with so many medical breakthroughs and newer drugs available to cure and treat diseases, microorganisms find ways to evade the action of drugs used to cure the infection they cause. This is antimicrobial resistance (AMR), which has recently become a global issue. Today, AMR threatens the effectiveness of many medicines used for treatment of conditions. AMR has turned into a global health issue, which hampers the control of infectious diseases. Bacteria are becoming resistant to many antibiotics; multi-drug resistant bacteria thus posing problems in treatment regimens. Researchers have recently identified a gene that enables some types of bacteria to be resistant to almost all antibiotics. In India, resistance of common bacteria to widely used antibiotics is prevalent. In a recent WHO pilot study, AMR was tracked for two years at large urban hospitals in New Delhi, Vellore, and Mumbai. AMR rates were high; at least 40 per cent for most for all major classes of antibiotics, with particularly high rates and rapid increases for fluoroquinolones used to treat pneumonia. Studies in other Indian hospitals have produced findings compatible with this surveillance data, though many represent small numbers of bacterial isolates, short study lengths and a limited population base. For more information visit: http://www.timeswellness.com/index.aspx?page=article§id=1&contentid=2011040720110406171722415932f0e2a