Kathmandu, June 8 -- Widespread abuse of antibiotics has led to patients not responding to treatment because bacteria causing infections have developed resistance to the drugs.

In 2021 alone, the last year for which statistics are available, nearly 20,000 patients died because the antibiotics they were prescribed did not work for such diseases as tuberculosis, pneumonia and other infections.

Now, public health experts are pushing for vaccines to address the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in Nepal. Vaccines are highly effective tool since they prevent infections, reduce the need of antimicrobial use thereby mitigate the emergence and spread of AMR.

Last week, the Global Antibiotic Resistance Partnership Nepal (GARP -...