Antibiotics Crisis

With the Union Health Ministry urging doctors to mandatorily mention indications and reasons for justification while prescribing antibiotics, infectious disease specialists say the initiative can help in rationalising antimicrobial usage and avoid indiscriminate consumption. The practice could also help further an evidence-based approach in medicine, along with improving patient outcomes, and curbing treatment costs and unwarranted side effects, they said. "Prescribers have to think and document the rationale before prescribing antimicrobials... This will help in the rational prescribing of antimicrobials and avoiding injudicious, indiscriminate usage," infectious disease specialist and senior consultant at the Yashoda Super Speciality Hospital in Kaushambi Dr Chhavi Gupta told PTI. In a letter to all doctors in medical colleges and medical associations on January 1, Director General of Health Services Dr Atul Goel urged them to make it a mandatory practice to write indications, ...

Millions of years of evolution in a high-risk environment have made ants a potential source of vital antimicrobials