To cure diseases and infections as soon as possible, humans rely on medicines. Goes to the hospital and gets treatment. Especially, in case of any serious infection, the patient is given antibiotics along with many types of medicines. But, a shocking thing has come to light in a recent report. According to this report, treatment of some common infections in India is now becoming very difficult, because many antibiotics used daily are rapidly losing their effectiveness. Treatment of common infections like pneumonia, urinary tract infection (UTI), sepsis, diarrhea etc. is now becoming very difficult because antibiotics are not working properly.
What does ICMR report say?
TOI According to a report published in ICMR’s 2024 annual report Antimicrobial Resistance Research and Surveillance Network (ARRSN), common medicines like carbapenems, piperacillin-tazobactam, fluoroquinolones, third-generation cephalosporins are no longer as effective as before against the bacteria most commonly found in hospitals.
This report has been prepared on the basis of one lakh positive samples tested in labs from some big hospitals of the country. Drug-resistant gram-negative bacteria predominate. In this, E. coli, the bacteria responsible for UTI, stomach and bloodstream infections, is now showing weak response even to strong antibiotics. Klebsiella pneumoniae, a major cause of pneumonia and sepsis, was found to be resistant to piperacillin–tazobactam in approximately three-quarters of cases and to carbapenems in most samples. For this reason, treatment options remain very limited. The situation in ICU is more serious.
In Acinetobacter baumannii, resistance to meropenem was found in 91% of patients, due to which doctors have to resort to more toxic or complex drugs. Resistance is also continuously increasing in Pseudomonas aeruginosa. However, there has been some improvement in the situation at some places, such as better response of E. coli to amikacin and some cephalosporins, but the overall situation is worsening.
Widespread resistance to fluoroquinolones and cephalosporins has also been observed in diarrhea-causing bacteria. More than 95 percent of Salmonella typhi samples were found to be resistant to fluoroquinolones. In fungal infections, Candida auris turned out to be resistant to drugs in about 10 percent of cases, while resistance to amphotericin-B was found in one-third of Aspergillus samples.
Some experts say that now the most commonly used antibiotics in India are losing their effectiveness, which is a matter of concern for seriously ill patients. If antibiotics are not used correctly and responsibly, it can be very difficult to treat even a common infection in the future.
Dr Rommel Tikku, director of internal medicine, Max Hospital (Saket), in an interview to TOI. Said that now the situation has become such that even strong and highly effective antibiotics are not able to have a positive effect on those infections, which were easily cured earlier. This is a serious public-health warning. In such a situation, it is very important that some strict rules are set for the use of antibiotics and some appropriate measures are taken to prevent infection.
