Hyderabad, April 07: With abuse of antibiotics leading to growing drug resistance, medical experts have called for a legislation/ regulation to prevent their sale across pharmacy outlets without valid prescription and making it mandatory for hospitals to have infection-control registries.
On the eve of the World Health Day being observed on April 7 with the theme “increasing effects of antimicrobial resistance”, P. Raghu Ram, Director KIMS-Ushalakshmi Centre for Breast Diseases and Lavanya Nutankalva, head of infectious diseases department, Apollo Hospitals expressed concern over the phenomena of self-medication and doctors prescribing high-end antibiotics when not needed.
Even in Upper Respiratory Tract Infection (URTI), caused by a virus or fungus, patients were being wrongly prescribed antibiotics although they do not act on these organisms said Dr. Raghu Ram. Also for clean surgeries like appendicitis, the surgeons suggest 10-day course of antibiotics which was not needed, pointed out Dr. Lavanya.
‘Super-bugs'
Emphasising the need to create awareness among people on the dangers of the abuse and overuse of antibiotics, they expressed fears that many more multi-drug resistant ‘super-bugs' would develop. Besides, stringent regulation by the Government, each hospital must have its own antibiotic policy. Also, there was a need for national guidelines on antibiotic prophylaxsis and usage for established infections.
Apollo Hospitals CEO, Hariprasad warned that increase in antibiotic resistance would lead to greater healthcare costs.
He said that all these issues would be discussed at an international congress on patient safety being organised by the Apollo hospitals here on April 21 and 22.
--Agencies
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