Antibiotic Resistance

The growing threat of antimicrobial resistance is making even routine surgical procedures more challenging, with surgeons warning that the loss of effective antibiotics could undermine decades of progress in safe surgery and increase the risk of life-threatening post-operative infections. Surgeons say that while antibiotics remain critical in preventing surgical site infections, their indiscriminate use has fuelled resistance, forcing hospitals to adopt stricter antibiotic stewardship practices and emphasise infection prevention measures over prolonged antibiotic prescriptions. Modern surgery depends as much on effective antibiotics as it does on surgical skill, Dr Amarchand Bajaj, senior consultant for general surgery at the Sitaram Bhartia Institute of Science and Research, said. "Whether it is an appendectomy, gall bladder surgery or major gastrointestinal surgery, the inability to treat infections due to resistant bacteria can significantly increase complications and prolong ...

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Today's Opinion page examines fertiliser subsidy reform, urban governance failures, market regulation, industrial financing and antibiotic resistance through the lens of institutional accountability

Antibiotic-resistant typhoid infections accounted for at least 87 per cent of India's disease-related economic burden in 2023, according to a study in The Lancet Regional Health Southeast Asia. The total economic burden due to typhoid fever was estimated at Rs 123 billion. Children under the age of 10 incurred the highest economic burden, contributing to over half of the costs, researchers, including those from London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Christian Medical College in Vellore, found. They also estimated that households bore 91 per cent of expenses, and 70,000 families faced "catastrophic" health expenditure. Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh (including Telangana), Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal were estimated to account for 51 per cent of the national costs. Typhoid fever is an infectious disease commonly transmitted through contaminated food or water. Symptoms can include high fever, fatigue, headache and stomach pain. The authors said the findings pr

Resistance can decline and older drugs can regain usefulness, but only if hospitals, communities and policymakers commit to long-term behavioural change and evidence-based interventions

The WHO's latest data show bacteria are evolving rapidly, outsmarting modern drugs, with South Asia and West Asia among the worst-hit regions as antibiotic resistance soars

German scientists have discovered that caffeine can interfere with antibiotics like amoxicillin and ciprofloxacin in bacteria, raising questions about how diet may influence drug effectiveness

Research finds that widely used drugs like ibuprofen, paracetamol and metformin could be silently worsening the global antimicrobial resistance crisis, and complicating patient treatments

Researchers calculated that about 8,500 tons of antibiotics -- nearly one-third of what people consume annually -- end up in river systems

Clinical trials to start next year, and drug can be in market by 2031-32

Human metapneumovirus is spreading in China, and the world is closely monitoring the situation in the country. People are wondering about the effectiveness of antibiotics against HMPV

Wockhardt's nafithromycin is India's first FDA-approved antimicrobial that is seen as an alternative to existing antibiotics like azithromycin, which is facing increasing resistance in humans

The rise in diseases like urinary tract infections, pneumonia, and typhoid, now harder to treat due to bacteria's growing resistance to common antibiotics, paints a grim picture

A study by The Lancet revealed that over 39 million people worldwide could lose their lives to antibiotic-resistant infections in the next 25 years

Over a million people around the world died annually due to antibiotic resistance between 1990 and 2021, and more than 39 million could die from antibiotic-resistant infections over the next 25 years, according to a global analysis, published in The Lancet journal. Future deaths from antibiotic resistance are estimated to be highest in South Asia -- including India, Pakistan and Bangladesh -- where a total of 11.8 million deaths directly due to it are forecast between 2025 and 2050, a collaboration of researchers forming the Global Research on Antimicrobial Resistance (GRAM) Project said. Antibiotic, or antimicrobial, resistance is when drugs designed to kill infectious bacteria and fungi are rendered ineffective because the bugs have evolved and developed an ability to defeat these drugs. The researchers said deaths due to antibiotic resistance will also be high in other parts of southern and eastern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Further, trends between 1990 and 2021 suggested that

Researchers have discovered an antibody that could counter all known variants of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 and also distantly related ones that infect other animals. SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus causing COVID-19, uses its spike protein to invade and infect another individual, or the host. Antibodies, produced by the host in response, bind to the spike protein to block its action and prevent infection. The researchers, led by those at The University of Texas in Austin, US, isolated the antibody 'SC27' from the plasma donated by four patients. These patients had breakthrough infections, which occur when a vaccinated individual gets infected. The research has been published in the journal Cell Reports Medicine. Over the more than four years since the first case of COVID-19 emerged, SARS-CoV-2 has evolved to acquire certain characteristics which make the virus resistant to vaccines and treatments. The authors said the 'SC27' antibody recognised all these various characterist

Viruses called bacteriophages, or phages, target bacteria but can't infect humans or other higher organisms

The study adds that an estimated 7.7 million die in LMICs due to bacterial infections, of which almost five million deaths are due to AMR bacteria

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, ...

India was one of the first few countries to develop a comprehensive national plan to manage the misuse of antimicrobials