The government has decided to act upon curbing the overprescription of antibiotics and has issued a warning wherein the doctors are directed to “mandatorily mention the indication/reason/justification while prescribing antibiotics.”
Curbing Over Prescription of Antibiotics
As per the Director General of Health Services, operating under the aegis of Union Health Ministry, Dr. Atul Goel has appealed to all the doctors to “mandatorily mention the exact indication/reason/justification while prescribing antimicrobials” in a letter.
As per a copy of letter accessed, Goel has also reminded pharmacists to “implement Schedule H and H1 of the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules and sell antibiotics only on valid prescriptions. It is important that doctors mention the exact indication on their prescriptions while prescribing antimicrobials,” according to a copy of the letter accessed by CNBC-TV18.
The letter said that “Misuse and overuse of antimicrobials are one of the main drivers in the emergence of drug-resistant pathogens. With few new antibiotics in the Research & Development pipeline, prudent antibiotic use is the only option to delay the development of resistance”.
As per the government, one of the top global public health threats is the Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR).
AMR Responsible for 1.27 Million Global Deaths in 2019
The letter says that “It is estimated that bacterial AMR was directly responsible for 1.27 million global deaths in 2019, and 4.95 million deaths were merely associated with drug-resistant infections”.
The letter also read that “AMR puts many of the gains of modern medicine at risk. It threatens the effective prevention and treatment of infections caused by resistant microbes, resulting in prolonged illness and a greater risk of death. Treatment failures also lead to longer periods of infectivity, and the prohibitively high cost of second-line drugs may result in failure to treat these diseases in many individuals.”
In his letter, Goel said while noting the importance of medical colleges in this that “The medical colleges not only provide tertiary healthcare in the country but also are hubs for the education of the younger generation of doctors. This makes it important that the doctors at medical colleges set an example of judicious use of antimicrobials for the next generation of doctors who will face this crisis in a much more severe form.”
