Dr. Devi Shetty Warns: Rampant Antibiotic Abuse is Pushing Us to a "Pre-Penicillin Era"

In his recent 'Mann Ki Baat' address, PM Modi cited an ICMR report to underscore how indiscriminate antibiotic use is driving AMR, making common infections harder to treat. Dr Shetty echoed these concerns, describing AMR as a looming crisis that could revert medicine to a "pre-penicillin era."

Speaking to ANI, Dr Shetty thanked the Prime Minister for highlighting the issue, noting that antimicrobial resistance could soon push the world into a dangerous medical era where even routine infections become untreatable.

"I want to thank our Prime Minister for creating an awareness about antimicrobial resistance. What is the meaning of antimicrobial resistance? It just means that when you develop a serious infection, none of the antibiotics will be able to treat your problem. Why did we land in this trouble? I have been practising heart surgery in India for the last 36 years. The first 15 years were the best period of my life. After any heart operation, however major it was, patients had antibiotics just for two days, and then we stopped the antibiotics. For whatever reason, if the patient's condition deteriorated after the surgery, sepsis or infection was never a thought we had in our mind because infection just wasn't there. In the last 10 years, things have dramatically changed," he said.

He noted that over the past decade, the situation has changed drastically. "Today, our greatest fear when we do complex heart surgery or any surgery for that matter is infection. The problem is that infection can happen, but most of the common antibiotics we use today, they just simply do not kill the bacteria. This happened because of the rampant abuse of antibiotics. All these bacteria have eaten so much of the antibiotics that today they don't care for the antibiotics," Dr Shetty added.

Dr Shetty noted that people often took antibiotics for minor illnesses such as fever, cold, or cough, thereby accelerating resistance.

"You develop a cold and cough, or a fever. You insist on taking antibiotics, so these bacteria have consumed so much of them that they no longer respond to them. Now you may think, if that is the case, why not we come up with new antibiotics? First thing is, for the last few years, there hasn't been a single new antibiotic, because it takes millions of dollars to produce the antibiotic to kill the bacteria, and even if we come up with a new medicine, the way we are consuming antibiotics, in no time, bacteria will become resistant," he said.

The Doctor also warned that developing new antibiotics is neither easy nor sustainable.

"All you have to do is refrain from taking antibiotics without a doctor's prescription and never demand from the doctor that you want an antibiotic. If the doctor feels you need antibiotics, they will prescribe them, but you don't insist on them. If you don't believe me, in the near future, we will run out of all the antibiotics, and we will go back to the pre-penicillin era. That was before penicillin was invented. We are going in that direction. So my request to all of you is, if it is possible, always avoid taking the antibiotics and never take antibiotics without a doctor's prescription," Dr Shetty asserted.

He emphasised the importance of avoiding even the suggestion of demanding or insisting on antibiotics.

- ANI