India is one country where pharmacists are the best doctors and give antibiotics across the counter. I have seen both educated and uneducated seek the advice of the pharmacist for treatment. Invariably, it is a bad decision by the patients. Health experts agree that using antibiotics without prescription is one of the major problems causing antibiotic resistance in the world. India has a track record of huge consumption of antibiotics.
The consumption has increased by 103 percent in just 15 years, from 2000 to 2015. Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, the study tracked antibiotic consumption in 76 countries. It has also projected total global antibiotic consumption by 2030. How to minimize the prescription of antibiotics? The reality is that antibiotics prescribed for viral infections are ineffective and unnecessary. It is a big challenge to restrain doctors from prescribing antibiotics on symptoms alone. Only after diagnostic tests are done, the antibiotics should be recommended and tighter control should be exercised on prescriptions. What is happening now is that unethical doctors have a favourite pharmacy or own a pharmacy and are happy to suggest a course of antibiotics. This is the curse in India, and the patient has to live with it. Luckily a few elite patients have started realizing the implication of antibiotics through net reference. What is important in a country which is predominantly rural and semi urban is the government’s role. It has to muster all its tools to reverse the tide of antibiotic misuse that threatens to unleash drug resistant infections