The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) has written a letter to the Pharmacists Association of India regarding antibiotics. Through this letter, an appeal has been made to the chemists to check the doctor’s prescription before giving antibiotics to the common citizen. And give medicine only on the basis of prescription. These orders should be brought into effect as soon as possible. Anti-microbials in this list include anti-septic, anti-biotic, anti-viral, anti-fungal and anti-parasitic medicines.
If the doctor is advising the patient to take low antimicrobials, then please explain the reason for the same.
About 13 lakh people died in 2019
The order issued by the Union Health Ministry states that Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) is a health threat all over the world. According to a data, in the year 2019, about 13 lakh people died due to bacterial AMR. Apart from this, 50 lakh deaths have occurred due to drug resistant infections. In the beginning of the 20th century, it took a month to recover from any disease. But now antimicrobial drugs (antibiotic, antifungal, and antiviral drugs) have started being used in such a way that now these diseases are treated immediately.
Antibiotics are used to kill bacteria. But if a person is using antibiotics repeatedly then his immunity starts weakening. Also, it takes a lot of time to fix it. This is called anti-microbial resistance (AMR).
Nowadays people use more antibiotics for quick recovery
Under the drug related laws in India, all types of antibiotics have been kept in H and H1 categories. These medicines cannot be sold without the prescription of doctors. Nowadays people are using more and more antibiotics to recover quickly.
Bacteria are becoming superbugs due to overuse of antibiotics
Due to excessive use of antibiotics, bacteria are becoming superbugs. Due to which it takes time to cure even a minor disease. This clearly means that even a minor disease does not heal quickly on its own. According to WHO, due to this, treatment of diseases like pneumonia, TB, blood poisoning and gonorrhea is becoming more difficult and people are dying. According to ICMR, this is the reason why carbapenems, medicines given in pneumonia and septicemia, have been banned because they are becoming ineffective in curing bacteria.
