The Annual Symposium 2022 on 'Antimicrobial Stewardship and Patient Safety' is to be held online on Thursday. The event is being organised by Sultan Qaboos University, American Society for Microbiology, Hospital Infection Society-India, and DASH to protect antibiotics.
Antimicrobial stewardship means optimal patient management by prescribing the right drug, in the right dose, right route to the right patient, while minimising unintended consequences of drug resistance, adverse drug events, healthcare-associated infections and economic cost, according to Dr Meher Rizvi, Associate Professor, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, College of Medicine and Health Sciences.
The objective is to promote judicious and responsible antimicrobial prescribing by healthcare practitioners and to promote evidence-based medicine to allow optimal patient care.
Dr Meher feels that it is important to spread awareness amongst the citizens that antibiotics are a non-renewable resource which needs to be protected for future generations.
“If we do not act now, it will be too late. We may push our future generations into a post-antibiotic era where life as we know it stands threatened. Longevity, quality of healthcare, economic productivity, plant, animal and environment health and food security may be compromised. Poverty will increase. The time to act is now,” she pointed out, adding that patient safety also promotes antimicrobial stewardship, as well as reducing all possible complications which may accidentally befall a patient- thus optimise patient experience and care.
This is the reality of antibiotics today.
The Associate Professor said that the very foundation of modern healthcare is antibiotics, “Whether we talk about surgery, e.g simple ceasarian section, or appendicectomy, transplant surgeries, management of cancer patients, management of infectious diseases like simple skin infections to infective endocarditis, tuberculosis, malaria, HIV all need antibiotics for a successful outcome. Longevity is directly linked to antibiotics.
Antibiotics ushered in the golden age for man-longevity, health and economic prosperity are directly linked to antibiotics.”
The challenge that is facing the health sector and could be a potential crisis is the situation medical experts are seeing - overuse of antibiotics has led to the bugs fighting back spectacularly.
“They are a formidable foe. They have developed large scale resistance to most of the available antibiotics. This has led to poor patient outcomes - from increased length of stay in hospitals to mortality and increased economic cost. A point has come where in some patients, none of the antibiotics may work.”
These are the measures to be taken. "We should be very circumspect in using antibiotics. They should not be prescribed for diarrhoea and common cold - as most are caused by viruses and are self-limiting in nature. Preventing infection in the first place is the need of the hour," said Dr Meher.
Hand hygiene is a very effective tool in preventing infection. Social distance should be maintained from people with cough and cold. Wearing personal protective equipment like gloves and masks are very useful when we are taking care of a sick person. Eating healthy food and exercising keeps the immune system strong and prevents infection.
The public also has a crucial role to play in this awareness and cause, according to the expert, the public should not pressurise a doctor to prescribe antibiotics for diarrhoea and colds. They should use clean water and follow principles of sanitation to prevent infection in the first place and should try symptomatic management for simple infections.
The Annual Symposium is aimed at healthcare administrators, microbiologists, ID physicians and surgeons, medical and nursing leadership, healthcare quality control personnel in Oman, India, Pakistan, Qatar, Iran, Maldives, Saudi Arabia, UK, USA, Ukraine, Egypt, Ethiopia, Sudan, Cameroon etc.
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