The New Delhi Metallo-beta-lactamase super bug has been worrying the medical authorities since it was detected. India is at the moment trapped in the throes of a grave danger. This danger is from “anti-microbial resistance” and this has stepped into its boundaries. Antibiotic resistance spells trouble and can be life-threatening in serious diseases. Many life-saving drugs are being rendered useless because of over abuse of these drugs .
India realized the danger of abusing antibiotics and over using it, but it seems that it has already been trapped in the web of “drug resistance”. Antibiotic resistant bacteria are threatening daily life and the evidence of this was seen in the form of the bug The New Delhi Metallo-beta-lactamase-1. New Delhi trembled with the onslaught of this enzyme in 2008 and this bug was found in U.K as well, spelling life threatening situations
Demands for curbing the use of antibiotics and restricting their purchase was being asked for much before this bug was discovered in India. In 2011, the Union government introduced a National Policy for Containment of Antimicrobial Resistance in India, to curb the errant use of antibiotics.
This policy reveals that “Antimicrobial resistance in pathogens causing important communicable diseases has become a matter of great public health concern globally including our country. Resistance has emerged even to newer, more potent antimicrobial agents like carbapenems.” Doctors agree that antibiotic resistance is a worldwide concern but India is one of the worse effected. Reports add, “The crude infectious disease mortality rate in India today is 416.75 per 100,000 persons… twice the rate in the U.S. (200) when antibiotics were introduced.”
The easy availability of antibiotics that can be picked up over the counter in minutes is dangerous. The frequent use of Antimicrobials has led to the careless use of these medicines in wrong doses in hospitals as well as livestock production. The authorities feel that strict control on sales of drugs and stricter measures need to be enforced inclusive of punishment for over the counter sale of restricted antibiotics. Now guidelines have been introduced for appropriate use of antibiotics and these have “revised Schedule H drugs to make over-the-counter availability of certain antibiotics nearly impossible.”
