Antibiotic use has become increasingly uncontrolled and has also increased antibiotic resistanceThe Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Antimicrobial Resistance Research and Monitoring Network has recently released its 2023 annual report that reviews the trends in antimicrobial resistance (amrThe report highlights the rise in antibiotic resistance in diseases such as urinary tract infections (UTIs), blood infections, pneumonia and typhoid. This ultimately makes these diseases difficult to treat.

ICMR shows increasing antibiotic resistance and decreasing effectiveness of major antibiotics. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says antimicrobial resistance (AMR) occurs when germs develop the ability to defeat drugs designed to kill them. These are usually antibiotics that are prescribed.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says AMR is one of the world’s most urgent health problems. It directly caused the deaths of about 1.27 million people and caused 4.95 million deaths worldwide in 2019.

In an Instagram post, Dr Chhaya Shah shared the most misused and overused antibiotics in India. She says the two most misused and overused antibiotics in India are azithromycin and cefixime. Azithromycin is also available as Azithral, ​​Zithromax, Azee, Zathrin etc. and Cefixime is available as Zifi, Taxim 0 etc.

“Azithromycin is commonly misused for sore throat, cough and cold,” says Dr. Shah. Cefixime is highly used for any fever and even sometimes for sore throat.”

She adds, “Azithromycin is misused because of its convenient dosage (once daily for 3 days). Cefixime is commonly prescribed by quacks, possibly because it is considered safe. Dr. Shah says that because of the long half-life of azithromycin, it is only taken once daily for 3 days. This means that it takes 3 days for half the medicine to be removed from the body. It remains active in the body for a long time even after you stop taking it.

This means that the drug remains in the body and environment for a longer period of time in lower doses and that constant exposure to the antibiotic causes the germs to become addicted to the drug. “As a result, the same pathogens that previously responded to azithromycin will no longer respond to the same drug,” says Dr. Shah.

Explaining this further, he said, “If they do not respond to antibiotics, they can put us in the hospital or maybe even kill us.”

Speaking about Cefixime he said that it is commonly indicated for dysentery and typhoid. But due to its misuse, typhoid germs have also become resistant to it. “As a result, once easily treatable typhoid now requires high doses of antibiotics or hospitalization. All this is due to misuse, overuse or taking low dosage or using it for only 1-2 days,” says Dr. Shah.

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