Antibiotics struggle to contain respiratory disease surge in Kolkata: Docs
Times of India | 6 December 2024
12 Kolkata: Antibiotic resistance plagues the recovery of scores of patients, including those suffering from respiratory diseases like pneumonia and severe chest infections, across Kolkata hospitals. This comes at a time when the numbers of patients with respiratory diseases have swelled with winter approaching. Some hospitals say around 70% of the admitted patients are not responding to first-line drugs, leading to delayed recovery and complications. Overuse of antibiotics, incomplete courses, and self-medication are believed to be the reasons behind this resistance, say doctors.
At Manipal Hospital Dhakuria, all pneumonia patients in the ICU are being put on ‘higher antibiotics' since those used a few years ago are no longer effective. "A few years ago, a drug like Ceftriaxone would work against pneumococcal bacteria. But it no longer works, so we have shifted to Ceftaroline. For mycoplasma pneumonia, azithromycin would suffice until recently, but we now start with doxycycline. Often, a patient has multiple bacterial infections, and while one antibiotic nullifies the major one, others remain active. This is why it's important to get tests done and scale down antibiotics use as overuse will lead to further resistance," said Manipal infectious diseases physician, Sayan Chakrabarty.
The situation is no different at Charnock Hospital for several pneumonia and chest infection patients. "A drug like amoxiclav would work against pneumonia a few years ago. Now, we use safforoxin instead. Higher antibiotics have completely replaced the previous first-line drugs that have turned ineffective,"said Charnock tropical medicine physician, Subhayan Bhattacharya. BP Poddar Hospital has seen a surge in the number of patients visiting its chest clinic with respiratory infections. "Fever associated with cough and cold are the major symptoms. In patients requiring antibiotics, a significant percentage is unresponsive to first-line antibiotics" said group advisor, Supriyo Chakrabarty.
"Patients with respiratory infections associated with acute exacerbation of COPD or bronchitis are not responding to the commonly prescribed antibiotics. While the prevalence is around 50%-60% in OPD cases, it is close to 70% in admitted patients. Upon conducting patient profiling, we found that while more elderly patients are showing resistance, younger patients, including school children, are also showing signs of antibiotic resistance," Supriyo Chakrabarty added. In Manipal Hospital also, the resistance to first-line of drugs is seen among patients in the age group of 35 to 40 years.
New bacteria and fungi have further complicated the scenario. Many of them were innocuous a few years ago but have turned potent now, said the quality and academic head of a hospital. "A bacteria like stenotrophomonas that would be considered harmless in the past is now proving to be dangerous. Also, the penicillia group of fungi have turned active," he added.
While most private hospitals mapped their infections and maintained records, data sharing remained a problem. No universally accepted antibiotic protocol is in place. Abhijit Aich Bhaumik, critical care expert at BP Poddar Hospital, pointed out how self-medication and irrational use of antibiotics can lead to the resistance.
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