FEVER ON RISE, AVOID ANTIBIOTICS: INDIAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION ISSUES ADVISORY

There is a sudden increase in the number of patients having symptoms of cough, nausea, vomiting, sore throat, fever, body ache, and diarrhoea in some cases. The infection usually lasts for about five to seven days. The fever goes away at the end of three days, but the cough can persist for up to three weeks. As per information from NCDC, most of the cases are H3N2 Influenza virus.

Indian Medical Association recently issued an advisory appealing to people, not to overly use antibiotics, also asking doctors to refrain from the same.

It is common to have a seasonal cold or cough during October to February period, because of influenza and other viruses.

Mostly, it occurs in people above the age of 50 and below 15 years. People develop upper respiratory infections along with fever, Air pollution is one of the precipitating factors.

Give only symptomatic treatment, no need to give antibiotics. But right now, people start taking antibiotics like Azithromycin and Amoxiclav etc, that too without caring for dose & frequency and stop it once start feeling better. This needs to be stopped as it leads to antibiotic resistance. Whenever there will a real use of antibiotics, they will not work due to the resistance.

Several other antibiotics are being misused for certain conditions and are developing resistance among patients, For instance, 70% of diarrhoea cases are viral diarrhoea, for which antibiotics are not needed but are being prescribed by doctors.

The most misused antibiotics are amoxicillin, norfloxacin, ciprofloxacin, ofloxacin, and levofloxacin. These are being used for diarrhoea and for UTI, the advisory stated.

Advisory stated that we have already seen widespread use of azithromycin and ivermectin during Covid and this too has led to resistance. It is necessary to diagnose whether the infection is bacterial or not before prescribing antibiotics.

Self-control and regulation need to be practised by all stakeholders. For prevention of infection avoid crowded places, practice good hand and respiratory hygiene and take the vaccination, the advisory stated.