Sustainable Development Goals

Transforming the world requires patience, effort, and time. Especially when it comes to promoting equality, peace, harmony, and care for the environment, the United Nations (UN) has framed 17 sustainable development goals. The ultimate target to achieve all of these 17 goals is the year 2030.

Moving on, as per the study published by Dr. Victor D Rosenthal, Founder and Chairman of The International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortium (INICC), the data was collected from 236,700 ICU patients for 970,713 bed-days in 20 Indian cities for ten years. The results pooled device-associated healthcare-associated infection rates for adult and pediatric ICUs were 5.1 central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs)/1,000 central line-days, 9.4 cases of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAPs)/1,000 mechanical ventilator-days, and 2.1 catheter-associated urinary tracts infections/1,000 urinary catheter-days. In neonatal ICUs (NICUs) pooled rates were 36.2 CLABSIs/1,000 central line-days and 1.9 VAPs/1,000 mechanical ventilator-days. Non-ventilator associated pneumonia represents less than 10 percent of all healthcare-acquired pneumonia, usually caused after aspiration.

These healthcare-associated infections are vastly related to Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), and the issue is becoming a significant threat to the country as cases have increased enormously. There is a connection between HAIs and AMR as the approach taken, at times, is to prevent hospital-acquired infections with antibiotics, which leads to many people consuming a large proportion of antibiotics resulting in resistance towards those drugs.

Thus, to maintain world peace and harmony, team iGEM IIT Roorkee decides to promote the sustainable development goal (SDGs) of the United Nations to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all. We want to achieve this by focusing on the SDGs, including good health and well being, quality education, and reduced inequalities.

SDGs Mapping and Implementation

Good Health and Well Being

To ensure a healthy life and to provide the revolutionized treatment of HAIs, our team chooses Good Health and Well Being as our first goal. The hospital or clinic environment are at the highest risk of acquiring these infections, especially the intensive care units, and operating rooms. Hence, it is of utmost importance that control measures are practiced to stop the spreading of diseases. We have done an awareness program for students of different age groups, through which we taught them about the AMR because education is the foundation upon which we build our future and our "Good Health and Well Being."

Quality Education

Justifying studying at one of India's top institutions, the team provides quality education to every section of society in collaboration with the National Service Scheme (NSS), IIT Roorkee. NSS is the Central Sector Scheme of the Government of India, Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports. After the iGEM 2020, our team would dedicate itself to primary training to teach students good hand hygiene habits and motivate them to practice standard precautions religiously.

Partnerships for the Goals

An unbiased partnership creates something more significant than what individual people/teams can do. With the same ideology, our partnerships, in the form of collaborations, are not just based on knowledge, but they stand on our partners' expertise in a specific field and adequate resources to promote the cause to accomplish sustainable development. We are happy to have formed an alliance with iGEM UPCH Peru for the iGEM ⤬ SDGs.

Our iGEM ⤬ SDGs Project

The recent chaos of the COVID-19 Pandemic has disrupted the living and working conditions of people worldwide. Everyone is locked inside their houses, waiting for the havoc to come to a halt. As a result, people are losing their mental peace and are anxious to start their routine work as soon as possible.

The continually increasing number of coronavirus cases is getting unsettling, making it impossible for people to keep calm. Team IIT Roorkee believes that 'Smile' brings happiness, and vibes of positivity are spread in the air. We worked out a collaboration on one of our mottos - "SMILE: Keep Your Spirits High." We asked our fellow iGEM Teams to send us a video message stating their 'Mantras' to stay positive in these challenging times.