Over 38% patients in India were given more than one antibiotic: survey | Data

A recent survey reveals high antibiotic usage among patients in Indian hospitals, raising concerns about antimicrobial resistance.

All the patients admitted to the acute care ward of the Lala Lajpat Rai Memorial Medical College in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, were given antibiotics, according to a recent survey by the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC). In fact, in 13 out of 20 hospitals in which the survey was conducted between November 2021 and April 2022, more than 70% of patients were given at least one dose of antibiotic.

All the patients who were admitted to the ward for more than a day, regardless of the underlying cause for their hospitalisation, were part of this survey. Those who were admitted for day-care procedures were excluded from the survey and so were those who got admitted late on the day of the survey or were about to be discharged on that day.

The findings of the report are worrying as India is among the few countries where antimicrobial resistance is notably high. Such resistance develops when antimicrobials, which include antibiotics, are misused or overprescribed. According to the WHO, antimicrobial resistance was directly responsible for 1.27 million global deaths in 2019 and contributed to 4.95 million deaths. The WHO says, “as pathogens become resistant to the drugs that were used against them, making infections harder and more expensive to treat.”

Chart 1 | The chart shows the share of 9,652 patients surveyed in 20 hospitals who were on one, two, three and no antibiotic prescriptions.

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In total about 72% of the patients were on at least one antibiotic prescription, 25.3% were on two antibiotic prescriptions, and about 13% were on three. The survey said combining two antibiotics can increase the risk of adverse effects.

Chart 2 | The chart shows the share of patients on antibiotic prescriptions for preventing or treating a disease.