Over 7 lakh lives in India are lost to antibiotic resistance, shows WHO

Antibiotic resistance is becoming a major concern for our doctors with over 7 lakh people losing their lives to this condition in the country.

Over 7 lakh Indians lose their lives to antibiotic resistance © Shutterstock

Around 7.5 lakh people in the country give up their lives to antibiotic resistance and this number is expected to increase to a whopping 10 lakh by 2050 as common infections and minor injuries are increasingly claiming lives, highlighted a recent media report. This is a huge concern among the doctors in the post-antibiotic era.

Experts point out that there has been no discovery of new antibiotic molecule despite research in the area in the last three decades. According to the estimates of the World Health Organisation (WHO), multi-drug resistant bacteria are the most critical group of resistance species posing a threat in hospitals, nursing homes and patients and care for this condition requires devices like ventilators and blood catheters.

Acinetobacter, pseudominas, klebisiella, E. coli, seratia, proteus and various enterobacteriaceae are the multi-drug bacteria that can cause severe and deadly infections in bloodstream infections and pneumonia. The major concerns among the doctors are trauma injuries like accidents, falls and infections.

A senior paediatrician reportedly said: "Antibiotic resistance is mostly seen while treating critical patients in the intensive care unit. We find that there is severe resistance and the time of recuperation after second and third line of antibiotics is also time-consuming.

Doctors point out that general public should be made more aware of the fact that for certain ailments like common cold and cough do not require antibiotics to be treated and can be tackled with simple medicines.