Why antibiotics are so commonly used for medical treatment? This is an important question and it needs to be addressed because people tend to use them excessively. Different kinds of fatal diseases are spreading in the world rapidly including cancer, kidney failure, heart attack, etc. It comes to mind why it is so? Why with a revolutionized medical science the world is still so vulnerable to diseases? One very important reason which is hidden and not discussed openly is the alarming rate of antibiotic consumption in Pakistan.
More dependence on fast food and low-quality food, worsening climatic conditions and mental stress are reasons behind many diseases and everyone knows that. Antibiotics are generally used to get rid of the diseases on an urgent basis by the patients. But it is now the common practice of the general physicians to bank upon the antibiotics to treat the patients which causes the body to develop antibiotic resistance and their effectiveness recedes with excessive use.
Excessive use of antibiotics has become a global health problem. The ratio of the use of antibiotics could be seen in the report, recently appeared. According to this report, Turkey is the country where the use of antibiotics is the most. Out of 1000 people, 48 take the use of antibiotics as a safe treatment. In Saudi Arabia, this ratio is 28, in the USA it is 27, in Pakistan it is 19 and in India, this ratio comes to 13 out of 1000 persons.
Antibiotics are not harmful per se but it is their use that affects their effectiveness. For example, if there is a little pain in the body and we try to relieve the pain with a heavy dose of anti-biotic. The pain will vanish but the body will develop resistance to it. Next time there is an urgent requirement of antibiotics to treat a disease, the body would have developed a resistance to the medicine and in this way, the effectiveness will be not up to the mark. No doubt, antibiotics are great warriors against bacteria and germs but they should be used carefully.
It was surveyed that Pakistan is the third top country in the excessive consumption of antibiotics. One of the reasons behind the increasing rate of antibiotic in Pakistan is the doctor’s prescription. Doctors tend to prescribe different antibiotics for infections and diseases like TB, and pneumonia to almost all patients.
India being the neighboring country has still a low rate of antibiotics consumption than Pakistan. Consequently, diseases are increasing and people are highly suffering but still, no action is taken. Developed countries do not let their patients take medicines without the recommendation of a specialist doctor.
Unfortunately, Pakistan has no hard and fast rules regarding this. People do self-medication and polypharmacy without giving it much thought. Every household keeps all kinds of medicines in the house and whenever someone contracts some disease, they self-medicate. Now is the time to reduce antibiotic consumption because they are the big reason people suffer from a disease for a longer period despite medication.
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