antibiotics when they feel
better, rather than
completing the prescribed
course of treatment.
Inappropriate use of
antibiotics whether
through taking them when
they are not required,
taking an incomplete
course, or taking them too
regularly makes bacterial
infections immune to
antibiotics. Globally 700
000 people die every year
as a result of once-
treatable health
conditions.
India is a major drug
producer with some of the
highest sales of antibiotics
globally and the highest
levels of AMR.
Contributing factors
include failures of India’s
drug regulatory system
which have been identified
in government reports, the
sale of antibiotics without
prescription, and the use
of fixed-dose combination
(FDC) antibiotics -
formulations composed of
two or more drugs in a
single pill.
“
We must remove
antibiotics from the
human food chain,
except to treat sick
animals, or face the
increasingly real
prospect of a post-
antibiotic world”
Ramanan Laxminarayan,
Director, CDDEP
According to an analysis
by researchers at Queen
Mary University of
London (QMUL) and
Newcastle University
where the team analysed
antibiotic sales in India
between 2007 and 2012,
and found that total
an tibiotic sales increased
by 26 per cent, with the
increase mainly due to the
growth in sales of FDCs,
which rose by 38 per cent.
By 2011–12, FDCs
comprised a third of total
sales in India.
The most ignored route of
antibiotic entry is the
agricultural produces.
While the dosages of
antibiotics applied to soil
and absorbed by plants
might be debatable but the
health implications for
people consuming them
are largely unknown. The
antibiotic accumulation in
plants is just another
negative consequence of
our animal agriculture
industry and not
surprising given the
quantity fed to livestock.
Researchers at the
University of Zurich have
found antibiotic-resistant
bacteria in fresh
vegetables imported from
India, Thailand, Vietnam
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