The Misuse of Antibiotics: A Growing Threat to Public Health

Antibiotic, a momentous discovery of medical science. Millions of lives are saved by the help of antibiotics. Before the discovery of antibiotics, many people faced premature death from small bacterial infections or diseases. The importance of antibiotics is beyond our imagination, which we can’t deny. But sadly, nowadays this life-saving medication is being misused by us. A survey arranged by ICDDR,B shows that the misuse of antibiotics is increasing day by day.

 

It is natural that we take medicine when we get ill, but it is very dangerous when we take medicine without any prescription or without any consultation from a doctor. In our country, it is a common scene that, if any person feels feverish or gets ill, that person takes antibiotics from retail pharmacies without a prescription from a doctor.

In our country, there is a misconception that we think fever is a disease. But it is true that fever isn’t a disease; it is a sign of a disease. Due to this misconception, when a person buys antibiotics from a retail pharmacy, he/she doesn’t know for what reason they are taking the antibiotics.

 

We know that a particular antibiotic can eradicate a particular type of bacteria. So, we should take antibiotics only when we know the cause of the disease, whether it is viral, bacterial, or caused by any other organisms.

For example, suppose you get a fever or feel ill due to the attack of a viral organism. So, to get relief from the fever, you take antibiotics even though you don’t know the cause of the fever. But we know that antibiotics have no therapeutic effect when taken for viral infections. As a result, when you take antibiotics for a viral infection, you don’t get results. Moreover, it is dangerous for your immune system to take antibiotics in the case of viral infections. It is natural that our body’s immune mechanism can resist viral diseases.

 

There is another foolishness among us: sometimes we don’t even know whether the drug we are taking is an antibiotic or not. Metronidazole is a widely used and popular antibiotic. But 90% of the time, we don’t finish the course. This is also true for other antibiotics. When we don’t complete the course of antibiotics, it leads to a dangerous complication, called antibiotic resistance. In short, antibiotic resistance is when our body becomes resistant to antibiotics.

 

In a survey, the World Health Organization (WHO) claims that there is also another reason behind antibiotic resistance. They claim that in animal food, fish, and agriculture, we use antibiotics without any precautions, and these antibiotics somehow enter our body. For this reason, our body also builds resistance to antibiotics. As a result, day by day, antibiotics lose their therapeutic effect, and the community health of our country is in danger.

 

We need to be aware of the use of antibiotics. It is also the responsibility of our government to take proper action to stop the use of antibiotics without prescriptions. These steps can save our community from this threat.

This article is taken from the Galen Gazette, September 2024, Issue No. 05. The author, Mahbub Alam, is a pharmacy student at World University Bangladesh.