The discovery of world's first antibiotic known as penicillin was the most amazing discovery in the 20th century.Its commercialisation started in the early 1940s. At that time during the World War 2, it brought about a radical improvement in global life expectancy. It was the first time in the human history that people no longer died because of an infected battle wound, or of a severe throat infection or tuberculosis, all mortal afflictions untill Scottish biologist Alexander Fleming and other collaborators gave the world a miracle cure against dangerous bacteria.
The miracle came with a warning. In 1945, fleming warned that indiscriminate use of penicillin could lead to the creation of mutant drug resistant bacteria. There was evidence of that happening as early as 1946, but the continous discovery of new antibiotics in the dacades that follow made everyone complacent. Now, nearly 70 years later, there is a growing evidence that several bacteria have become completely resistant to traditional antibiotics. We could potentially regress to a past when millions of people lost their lives to diseases we thought we had conquered, including tuberculosis. which is rampant in India. Nowhere have antibiotics been quite as widely abused as in India. Some of that has to do with the over eagerness of doctors who sometimes prescribe antibiotics for say, viral infection. The drugs have no impact on the illness but foster the growth of drug resistant bacteria. It is also far too easy for people to buy antibiotics in India. Self medicating patients buy a lot of such medicines without a necessary prescription from a doctor. Worryingly, they don't know the correct dosages. A majority of chemists put profit for good sense to facilitate this carelessness.
The fact is that retail sales of antibiotics in India have grown at a rate of 6-7 percent per annum between 2005 and 2010 whereas in the US, for the same period, sales have not grown, remaining stable.
The latest date produced by the World Health Organization and India's own medical community shows an alarming 70 percent of Indians are resistant to multiple, cutting edge antibiotics. It is estimated that 30 percent of patients admitted to Intensive Care Units in India die because of antibiotic resistance to infections they have picked up. Unfortunately, there have been hardly any new antibiotic drug discoveries in the past two decades. That means that there are no superdrugs in the pipeline ready to fight the menace of resistant bacteria. India and indeed the rest of the world, could be on the brink of health crisis.
The miracle came with a warning. In 1945, fleming warned that indiscriminate use of penicillin could lead to the creation of mutant drug resistant bacteria. There was evidence of that happening as early as 1946, but the continous discovery of new antibiotics in the dacades that follow made everyone complacent. Now, nearly 70 years later, there is a growing evidence that several bacteria have become completely resistant to traditional antibiotics. We could potentially regress to a past when millions of people lost their lives to diseases we thought we had conquered, including tuberculosis. which is rampant in India. Nowhere have antibiotics been quite as widely abused as in India. Some of that has to do with the over eagerness of doctors who sometimes prescribe antibiotics for say, viral infection. The drugs have no impact on the illness but foster the growth of drug resistant bacteria. It is also far too easy for people to buy antibiotics in India. Self medicating patients buy a lot of such medicines without a necessary prescription from a doctor. Worryingly, they don't know the correct dosages. A majority of chemists put profit for good sense to facilitate this carelessness.
The fact is that retail sales of antibiotics in India have grown at a rate of 6-7 percent per annum between 2005 and 2010 whereas in the US, for the same period, sales have not grown, remaining stable.
The latest date produced by the World Health Organization and India's own medical community shows an alarming 70 percent of Indians are resistant to multiple, cutting edge antibiotics. It is estimated that 30 percent of patients admitted to Intensive Care Units in India die because of antibiotic resistance to infections they have picked up. Unfortunately, there have been hardly any new antibiotic drug discoveries in the past two decades. That means that there are no superdrugs in the pipeline ready to fight the menace of resistant bacteria. India and indeed the rest of the world, could be on the brink of health crisis.
No comments:
Post a Comment