Hyderabad: Twelve classes of bacteria have become antibiotic resistant and are posing a major health threat. This makes it difficult for clinicians, according to a review of the increasing cases of antibiotic resistance, carried out by the Indian Medical Association. Dr K. K. Aggarwal, president of the IMA, explained, “At the clinical level, resistance is being recorded in urinary tract infections, gonorrhoea, typhoid, tuberculosis, e-coli infections and other secondary infections where the load of the bacteria in the body is too high and combating it with medicines is not working.”
The 12 classes of bacteria have been further classified into critical, medium, and low level to ensure that the physicians at the critical care level are aware of the increasing resistance and are able to use the second and third generation of antibiotics to deal with the illness. A senior doctor, on condition of anonymity, said, “The second and third generation drugs are expensive and increase the cost of treatment. These drugs are also less effective and have more side-effects. There is increased hospital stay, probability of adverse drug reactions and also risk of therapeutic failure. Hence the best way to deal with the problem is to curb the prescription of antibiotics for viral infections, common cold and fevers.”
It is also necessary to create awareness about antibiotics among the public who tend to demand it for early and immediate relief. Dr G. Srinivas Rao, senior general physician, says those who want a long list of medications from doctors must understand that there is only one tablet for the disease and the rest are vitamins and other supplements. “Doctors are under pressure to prescribe more medications but this trend has to change. Antibiotics have to be strongly curtailed from the ground level clinical practice to tackle the resistance. This means doctors, quacks, and also pharmacists who give over the counter drugs, must not be allowed to prescribe so freely,” says Dr Rao.
Antibiotics given to cattle manifest in the meat we eat and its use must be curtailed. Hence the awareness requires human, animal and environmental control of antibiotics to ensure the bacteria do not become stronger.
