Resisting resistance: on antibiotic misuse

Resisting resistance: on antibiotic misuse

News:

1.   The article discusses the need for India to strengthen and implement regulations on antibiotic misuse.

Important Facts:

2. Background:

• In a recent investigation, veterinary drug-maker, Zoetis, was found selling antibiotics as growth promoters to poultry farmers in India.
• This raised outrage as Zoetis had stopped the practice in the U.S and hasbeen following double standards continuing the drug in India.

3. India is yet to regulate antibiotic-use in poultry, while the U.S. banned the use of antibiotics as growth-promoters in early 2017.
4. Moreover India will be losing the most from antibiotic resistance given that its burden of infectious disease is among the world’s highest.
5. According to a 2016 PLOS Medicine paper, 416 of every 100,000 Indians die of infectious diseases each year. If these miracle drugs stop working, no one will be hit harder than India.
6. Therefore India’s progress towards a tighter regulatory regime must pick up pace.

Major sources of growing antibiotic resistance:

7. Overuse of antibiotics by human beings.
8. Overuse in the veterinary sector.
9. Environmental antibiotic contamination due to pharmaceutical and hospital discharge.

Issues in tackling the sources of resistance:

• Overuse: India classified important antibiotics under Schedule H1 of the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules 1945, so that they couldn’t be sold without prescriptions. Still, Schedule H1 drugs are freely available in pharmacies, with state drug-controllers unable to enforce the law widely.
• Veterinary use: India’s 2017 National Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance (NAPAR) has provisions about restricting antibiotic use as growth promoters. However no progress has been made on this front yet, allowing companies to sell last-resort drugs to farmers over the counter.
• Environmental damage: The 2017 document (NAPAR) also spoke about regulating antibiotics levels in discharge from pharmaceutical firms into local lakes, rivers and sewers. This has led to an explosion in resistance genes in these water bodies. Still, India is yet to introduce standards for antibiotics in wastewater, which means antibiotic discharge in sewage is not even being monitored regularly.

10. Way forward: India should formulate strict regulations regarding the use of antibiotics to prevent its misuse and overdose so that casualties due to antimicrobial resistance are reduced.