Background:

Antibiotic resistance is a global threat that occurs naturally but misuse and overuse of antibiotics in humans and animals is accelerating the process and requires ‘one health’ approach to mitigate the situation.

Novelty:

Considering ‘one health’ approach in the proposed study, it is the novel concept for implementation in Indian context. The proposed study would generate evidence on burden of antibiotic resistance, awareness and practices of proper antibiotic consumption among community members in West Bengal. The intervention package proposed in this study will be a novel intervention, which can be integrated with the existing healthcare delivery system as well.

Objectives:

To evaluate the changes in awareness and practices related to antibiotic consumption, and the proportion of antibiotic resistance after the intervention.

Methods:

The proposed study will be an embedded mixed methods interventional community-based study to be conducted in greater Kolkata region and West Medinipur district among adults (≥ 18 years of age) who will give consent for participation, and residing in a particular area for more than 10 years. Intervention in the form of behavioral intervention package, targeting awareness, perceived severity, and perceived susceptibility regarding the issue of Antibiotic resistance will be developed and implemented. Data collection in the form of survey, observation, in-depth interview, collection of human, animal and environment sample will be carried out.

Expected outcome:

The intervention package proposed is expected to improve the awareness of the participants on appropriate use of antibiotics, and on the adverse effects of antibiotic resistance.