Relevance: GS Paper III (Science and Technology)
Why has this issue cropped up?
India needs to strengthen and implement regulations on antibiotic misuse. In a recent investigation, it was found that the world’s largest veterinary drug-maker, Zoetis, was selling antibiotics as growth promoters to poultry farmers in India, even though it had stopped the practice in the U.S.
The antibiotic regulation in India
India is yet to regulate antibiotic-use in poultry, while the U.S. banned the use of antibiotics as growth-promoters in early 2017. So, technically, the drug-maker was doing nothing illegal and complying with local regulations in both countries.
Loss due to antibiotic resistance
- India stands to lose the most from antibiotic resistance given that its burden of infectious disease is among the world’s highest.
- 416 of every 100,000 Indians die of infectious diseases each year. This is more than twice the U.S.’s crude infectious-disease mortality-rate in the 1940s, when antibiotics were first used there.
- If these miracle drugs stop working, no one will be hit harder than India. This is why the country’s progress towards a tighter regulatory regime must pick up pace.
Major sources of antibiotic resistance
There are three major sources of resistance:
- overuse of antibiotics by human beings;
- overuse in the veterinary sector; and
- environmental antibiotic contamination due to pharmaceutical and hospital discharge.
Has India been able to control antibiotic resistance?
- To tackle the first source, India classified important antibiotics under Schedule H1 of the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules 1945, so that they couldn’t be sold without prescriptions. Still, Schedule H1 drugs are freely available in pharmacies, with state drug-controllers unable to enforce the law widely.
- As far as veterinary use goes, India’s 2017 National Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance did talk about restricting antibiotic use as growth promoters. Sadly, no progress has been made on this front yet, allowing companies to sell last-resort drugs to farmers over the counter.
- The 2017 document also spoke about regulating antibiotics levels in discharge from pharmaceutical firms. For instance, Hyderabad’s pharmaceutical industry has been pumping massive amounts of antibiotics into local lakes, rivers and sewers. This has led to an explosion in resistance genes in these water bodies. Still, India is yet to introduce standards for antibiotics in waste water, which means antibiotic discharge in sewage is not even being monitored regularly
Conclusion
As the country takes its time to formulate regulations, the toll from antibiotic-misuse is growing at an alarming rate. According to a 2013 estimate, around 58,000 newborns die in India each year due to sepsis from resistant bacteria. When these numbers mount, India will have no one to blame but itself.
