Thiruvananthapuram, March 14 The Kerala Health Department has designated 83 hospitals as "antibiotic-smart hospitals" and five local self-government bodies as "antibiotic-literate local self-government bodies" after they met the prescribed standards aimed at strengthening measures to prevent antibiotic resistance, Health Minister Veena George said on Saturday.
In a statement, the minister said that out of the 83 hospitals, 73 are primary-level institutions, 4 are secondary-level hospitals, and 1 is a tertiary-level hospital.
The institutions were designated as antibiotic-smart only after verifying whether they had met the prescribed criteria through evaluations at the institutional, block, district, and state levels, she said.
As part of strengthening antibiotic resistance prevention in the state, the concepts of "antibiotic-smart hospitals" and "antibiotic-literate local self-government bodies" were introduced for the first time in the world under the Kerala Anti-Microbial Resistance Strategic Action Plan, the statement said.
The state government had also issued a comprehensive operational guideline to implement the initiative, based on which hospitals and local bodies were assessed and declared antibiotic-smart, it said.
In 2024, Family Health Centres at Kakodi and Ozhalapathy were declared antibiotic-smart institutions.
George said the concept of antibiotic-literate local self-government bodies was introduced under the "One Health" approach, which recognizes the interconnectedness between human, animal, and environmental health.
As part of the Antibiotic-Literate Kerala project, specific criteria were set for local self-government bodies to achieve this status, she said.
The Kakodi panchayat in Kozhikode district and the Panavally, Thakazhi, Veeyapuram, and Chettikulangara panchayats in Alappuzha district have achieved the status of antibiotic-literate local self-government bodies, the minister said.
Ernakulam General Hospital has become the first tertiary-level antibiotic-smart hospital in the state.
The Fort Kochi Taluk Hospital, Chengannur District Hospital, Alappuzha District Hospital, and Alappuzha Women and Children’s Hospital have become the first secondary-level antibiotic-smart hospitals in Kerala.
The minister said that the state aims to transform all hospitals and local self-government institutions into antibiotic-smart institutions within a set timeframe as part of efforts to combat antimicrobial resistance.