Public health experts are concern about the excessive use of antibiotic which rose dramatically in the world. They urged for fresh strategies to rein in excessive use of the drugs, and for major investments to provide clean water, sanitation and vaccines in countries where infectious diseases are rife.
The uncontrolled use of antibiotics is the key driver for the rise in drug-resistant infections which now kill at least half a million people each year in the whole world, including 50,000 in Europe and the US. Left unchecked, the spread of drug resistance could claim millions of lives a year by 2050, according to a 2014 report for David Cameron, the former prime minister.
In spite of efforts to encourage more discreet use of antibiotics, a 65% rise in worldwide consumption of the drugs from 2000 to 2015, according to the international team of researchers. The sharp upturn, revealed in sales figures from 76 countries, was driven almost entirely by rising use in poorer nations, the study found.
“We saw a dramatic increase in antibiotic use globally and this is mostly from gains in low and middle income countries where economic growth means they have greater access to the drugs,” said Eili Klein, an author on the study at the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy in Washington DC.
Klein said clean water supplies and vaccination programmes could also help to curb excessive antibiotic use, and so drug-resistant infections. Whilst antibiotics are not fruitful against viruses, vaccines that protect against the flu and viruses that cause diarrhoeal disease would reduce the number of people being handed antibiotics unnecessarily. “The reality is that a lot of antibiotic overuse is for viral infections,” Klein said.
The number of people would be reduced who are being handed antibiotics unnecessarily by providing them vaccines that protect against the flu and viruses that cause diarrhoeal disease whilst antibiotics are not fruitful against viruses.
“Our modern medical system is built on effective antibiotics,” Klein added. “If our antibiotics stop working, if bacteria become resistant to most of them, medicine will be in trouble. The worry is that people don’t do anything about it.”
> Shiuly Akter
Urge to Control Antibiotic Consumption as Study Reveals 65% Increase Worldwide
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