World Health Day : ‘Humans at risk of returning to time before medical advances’

Doctors urge medical students to avoid prescribing antibiotics.

HYDERABAD:

The human race is at a risk of returning to the period which preceded the advances in medical science that helped control infectious diseases, a member of the World Health Organised has warned.

In a message sent to the Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences (Lumhs), WHO Eastern Mediterranean region director Dr Hussein A Gezairy said that the cost of healthcare and difficulties in dealing with surgery, cancer and transplants in the future is likely to increase. “New antimicrobial agents are not in the pipeline and old antibiotics are showing resistance,” his message reads.

To mark World Health Day on Thursday, Lumhs organised a seminar, titled ‘Combat Drug Resistance: No Action Today, No Cure Tomorrow’, in which doctors called for efforts to combat the growing problem of drug resistance and the use of antibiotic medicines.

The speakers observed that there has been a decline in the rate of treatment of diseases caused by micro organisms, such as bacteria, viruses and parasites, due to the weak response of antimicrobials, which are used to treat diseases such as leprosy, tuberculosis, gonorrhoea and syphilis.

The World Health Organisation has warned that drug resistance is becoming more acute as many infections can no longer be cured easily. This leads to a prolonged and expensive treatment and greater risk of death.

“Diseases, such as diarrhoea, pneumonia and malaria among children under five years, become difficult to cure without the right prescription and the rational use of antimicrobial agents,” said Dr Abdul Rahman Pirzado, a WHO representative. He suggested creating awareness among paediatricians.

Prof Hussain Bux Kolachi said that 64 countries have reported antimicrobial resistance against tuberculosis, pointing out the surge of MDR-TB and XDR-TB in the world. He said that Lumhs will set up an infection control committee after they discover acquired infections at the university’s hospital, also known as nosocomial infections.

Prof. Salma Shaikh advised the students in eye care and paediatric care to avoid prescribing antibiotics because they would not cure the patients. In fact they prolong the disease and increase morbidity and mortality, she said.

Meanwhile, Civil Hospital, Hyderabad (CHH), also organised a seminar on the ‘Side Effects of Antibiotic Medicines’. CHH medical superintendent Dr Ghulam Mustafa Abbasi urged medical practitioners to do away with the unnecessary use of antibiotic medicines.

“This hospital caters to patients from all remote areas of the province. A sizable number of them, being uneducated, are oblivious of the drugs and their side effects. Therefore, it becomes a greater responsibility of the doctors practising here to use such drugs sparingly,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 8^th,  2011.