'Avoid Antibiotics': Indian Medical Association Issue Notice Amid Surge In Fever Cases - Read Details

New Delhi: The Indian Medical Association(IMA) on Friday advised people and medical practitioners to avoid the prescription of antibiotics to the increasing patients of with seasonal fever, cold & cough. In a notice shared on Twitter, IMA said that is a sudden spike in fever cases  in India and most of these cases are of Influenza A subtype H3N2. The people down with this infection are having sysmptoms of cough, nausea, vomiting, sore throat, fever, body ache, and diarrhoea. It lasts usually for about five to seven days. The notice stated that the fever goes away at the end of three days, but the cough can persist for up to three weeks.

"It is common to have 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. Poepl develop upper respiratory along with fever. Air pollution is one of the precipitating factors," the notice said. 

Indian Medical Association (IMA) in a notice posted on social media advised people & medical practitioners to avoid prescription of antibiotics to the increasing patients of with seasonal fever, cold & cough. pic.twitter.com/fMbKa9eSDQ — ANI (@ANI) March 3, 2023

The IMA asked medical practioners to only give symptomatic treatment and avoid prescribing antibiotics to patients. IMA warned that unneccessary usage of antibiotics should be stopped as it leads to antibiotic resistance. It said that this medicine will stop working when there is a real of it.

Citing example of diarrhoea it said, 70% of cases are viral diarrhoea for which antibiotics are not needed but doctors are still prescribing it.

The Don`ts also include shaking hands or using other contact greetings, spitting in public, taking antibiotics or other medicines without consulting a doctor, eating together sitting close to others.

According to IMA, the most misused antibiotics are amoxicillin, norfloxacin, ciprofloxacin, ofloxacin, levofloxacin. These are being used for Diarrhoea and for UTI.

"We have already seeen widespread use of azithromycin and ivermectin during Covid and this too had led to resitance. It is necessary to diagnose whether the injection is bacterial or not before prescribing antibiotics," the notice said.