Antibiotic Resistence

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 ...

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

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

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

Evidence provided by science is often mixed, incomplete, changeable or conditional on context

Antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest threats to global health, says WHO