New Delhi: India has an urgent need for a strong antibiotic policy, the medical research fraternity is urging the Narendra Modi government. Some disturbing health trends were observed in a study being conducted by researchers at the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). The on-going study has revealed that there is a high drug resistance to common antibiotics.
In the first phase of the antibiotic surveillance conducted at four public hospitals in the country - AIIMS, CMC Vellore, JIPMER Puducherry and PGI Chandigarh - doctors found that almost 50% of the people have developed resistance to antibiotics used to treat common ailments.
"We are looking at six classes of organisms. We have data on about 18,000 isolates now. Most of them tend to reflect a high amount of antibiotic resistance," said Director General of ICMR Dr Soumya Swaminathan.
Some encouraging trends were also observed. The study also found that in the case of typhoid, the bacterium has now become sensitive to antibiotics that were used about 25 to 30 years back. These drugs could be much cheaper than the current set of antibiotics being prescribed by doctors.
The WHO is observing Antibiotic Awareness Week from November 16 to November 22
While India still does not have an antimicrobial policy, something that is seen as a global emergency, in the United States, President Barack Obama himself is heading the panel to fight antibiotic resistance. "There's always a need for health budgets to be increased because we still have a huge burden of both communicable and noncommunicable diseases in India. Even to do prevention programmes, one needs a good budget," said Dr Swaminathan.
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