PESHAWAR: Complaining about the excessive use of antibiotics, medical experts have urged people to use those drugs by prescription only to prevent complications.

Prof Khalid Mahmood, a former physician at the Lady Reading Hospital, Peshawar, told Dawn that misuse and overuse of antibiotics was rampant which caused emergence of antibiotics resistance and superbugs.

“We, prescribers, and patients are equally at fault. Quacks and general practitioners are compounding this issue by unnecessarily prescribing antibiotics for non-bacterial infections,” he said.

The expert said common infections like typhoid couldn’t be treated due to the emergence of resistance primarily caused by the misuse of antibiotics.

Call for use of these medicines only when prescribed

He said the issue could be tackled by stopping the disbursement of antibiotics from pharmacies without doctor’s prescription, limiting the use of certain antibiotics to hospital settings, discouraging its use for common viral illnesses like viral flu and Covid-19, and ensuring adherence to measures for infection control and prevention.

CEO of the Health Net Hospital Hayatabad Prof Syed Amjad Taqweem told Dawn that antibiotic resistance was a serious public health problem.

“Some bacteria that are capable of causing serious disease are becoming resistant to most commonly available antibiotics. Antibiotic resistant bacteria can spread from person to person in the community or from patient to patient in hospitals,” he said.

According to Prof Taqweem, the “careful” infection control procedures can minimise the spread of bacteria in hospitals and good personal hygiene can stop the bacteria from spreading in the community.

Prof Amjad said the main weapon against bacteria was antibiotics.

“The main targets for antibiotics are cell membrane, cell wall, protein synthesis, nucleic acid synthesis and biological metabolic compound synthesis,” he said.

The hospital CEO said the main drivers of antimicrobial resistance included the misuse and overuse of antimicrobials, lack of access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene for both humans and animals, poor infection, disease prevention and control in healthcare facilities, and people’s poor access to quality and affordable medicines.

“A careful prescription of antibiotics will minimise the development of antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria. Access to clean water and sanitation can limit its use,” he said.

Prof Amjad said isolation of resistant cases from other patients in hospitals and from normal population and work on developing new antibiotics to overcome the present problems is required.

Vice-Chancellor of the Khyber Medical University Prof Ziaul Haq said there’s evidence that excessive use of antibiotics for chest infection in children was increasing in the winter season, so there were cases of resistance.

“Antibiotics is a great invention but its misuse causes health problems. It cannot be used against all diseases and its continuous use can cause health problems, especially resistance,” he said.

Prof Haq said the scientific evidence showed that many children were resistant to over a dozen antibiotics due to its frequent use but the responsibility lied with healthcare providers to limit their prescription.

Published in Dawn, January 19th, 2023