MIT Solve

Solution & Team Overview

Solution Name:

Antibiotic Disposal Box

Short solution summary:

Antibiotic disposal box is a simple and cost effective solution to decrease antibiotic pollution in the environment and to reduce AMR burden

In what city, town, or region is your solution team based?

Hyderabad, Telangana, India

Who is the Team Lead for your solution?

Dr Ruby Raphael, clinical pharmacologist

Which Challenge Objective does your solution most closely address?

Innovation
Integration
Implementation

What specific problem are you solving?

The misuse and overuse antibiotics can substantially increase the level of antibiotics in the environment. Fazaludeen Koya S et al reported that at the national level, total private-sector antibiotic consumption increased by 12.0% between 2011 and 2016, from 4749 to 5358 million DDDs, and then decreased to 5071 million in 2019, registering a net increase of 6.8% between 2011 and 2019 and a CAGR of 0.63%. All these accelerates the evolution of Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria and Antibiotic Resistance Genes resulting in multidrug resistant organisms and antimicrobial resistance. Antibiotic pollution is poorly regulated on a local and global scale, antibiotic molecules are increasingly found in freshwater, and marine environments etc. therefore by adopting an appropriate antibiotic disposal practice, the amount of antibiotics in the environment can be reduced.

Who does your solution serve, and what needs of theirs does it address?

Target audience is the public and healthcare professionals and we aim to

create awareness regarding misuse of antibiotics
assess the quantity of unused antimicrobials among the public and health-care professionals and encourage
educate and encourage appropriate antibiotic disposal practices if they have leftover/excess antibiotics

Thereby decreasing antibiotic pollution and AMR burden in the environment.

Public can be actively engaged by placing these Antibiotic disposal boxes along with LED display at public places and in communities. LED display will run an awareness video in local languages describing the appropriate use of antibiotics , right disposal practices and threats of AMR.

What is your solution’s stage of development?

Proof of Concept: A venture or organisation building and testing its prototype, research, product, service, or business/policy model, and has built preliminary evidence or data