Huge threat of ‘superbugs’

Discovery of penicillin in 1928 ushered in the era of antibiotics, revolutionising the treatment of infections. It was once thought that by the end of 20th century, the world would be free of infections. But, the bacteria which have been on this earth for million years before humans quickly countered this attack on them by developing resistance to the antibiotics called antimicrobial resistance (AMR). This adaptation of bacteria makes them unresponsive to the medicines designed to kill them.

This war with bacteria is going on for more than half a century now. Misuse of antibiotics, widespread use in livestock and crops along with poor sanitation and environmental pollution helped the bacteria in mounting this resistance and today we are facing a huge threat of “superbugs”, the multi-drug resistant bacteria that is resistant to all antibiotics.

Moreover, humans have very little backup now with only a few new antibiotics in the pipeline to be used clinically in near future.

The AMR can cause common infections difficult or impossible to treat leading to severe illness, longer hospital stays, higher medical costs, and increased risk of death. It can also cause failure of various modern treatments like organ transplants, joint replacements and cancer chemotherapy.

Antibiotic usage in India remains alarmingly high with 16.29 billion antibiotic doses sold in 2020, which is in contrast to the decreasing use in developed countries. The problem is not only in India, it’s global. World Healh Organisation (WHO) in 2019 reported that bacterial resistance was directly responsible for 1.27 million deaths worldwide and contributed to 5 million deaths.

A joint report by WHO, UN and WOAH in 2019 highlighted that inability to tackle this problem can lead to 10 million deaths worldwide by 2050. Thus, there is an urgent need for effective strategy and intervention to safeguard health and economy. Most important of these is to promote responsible antibiotic use and ensuring that antibiotics are used only when necessary. Further, sale of antibiotics without prescription needs to be prohibited.