Antibiotic Abuse

Why in news?

A London based survey has found out that nearly 64% of fixed-dose combination antibiotics in the Indian market didn’t have approval.

What are antibiotics?

• An antibiotic is given for the treatment of an infection caused by bacteria. It is not effective against viruses.
• Antibiotics are powerful medicines that fight certain bacteria either by stopping them from reproducing or destroying them.
• There is concern worldwide that antibiotics are being overused which is contributing towards the growing number of bacterial infections that are becoming resistant to antibacterial medications.

What are the findings of the survey?

• An analysis of the Indian antibiotics market was conducted by researchers at the Queen Mary University in London.
• The study analyses regulatory records pertaining to fixed-dose combinations (FDCs) and single-drug formulations (SDF) antibiotics sold in India between 2007 and 2012.
• It finds that 64% of the 118 FDCs available under 3,307 brand names made by 476 companies and 7% of 86 SDFs analysed did not have approval from the drug-quality regulator.
• In a study of 88,600 infants in Delhi it was found that 14% of the babies admitted to the ICU within 72 hours of birth had infections that were hospital acquired, and therefore had highly drug-resistant strains of pathogen.

What are the concerns of antibiotic abuse in India?

• Many unapproved antibiotics are also over-prescribed in India, in a scenario where drug quality is already suspect, unapproved drugs mean a worsening of resistance implications.
• The resistance to antibiotics kills around 700,000 globally, by 2050, the figure could reach 10 million, of which 2 million will be Indians.
• India has one of the highest antibiotics consumption figure globally which means resistance to antibiotics doubles down as a threat for the country.
• The problem of questionable drugs standards is compounded by the scale of drug/antibiotic abuse in India.

What measures needs to be taken by the government?

• In India the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation is the regulatory body, selling of unapproved drugs is illegal, and yet, Indian companies continued to be in flagrant violation the policy.
• Rampant self-medication in India need to be treated by matching the prescriptions to volumes of antibiotics sold.
• Government should also consider countering the drugs which are commonly abused antibiotics in the market.
• Cracking down the sales of unapproved antibiotics will take them out of circulation and of prescriptions.

Source: Financial Express