00:00Antimicrobial resistance is already a pandemic. It is there. Even the Honorable Prime Minister
00:09spoke about it. Indian Council of Medical Research has been following antimicrobial resistance
00:16all across India in multiple hospitals. What we have found is there is obviously increasing
00:23resistance to antibiotics. So we think that we have overcome infectious diseases particularly
00:30bacterial diseases but also others because we have antibiotics. However the bacteria are now
00:37becoming resistant to that. It is largely because of overuse and misuse of antibiotics. So if we
00:47use antibiotics well and rationally they will last us for several hundred years. If we don't
00:56then after a while we will be helpless against bacterial infections. Very clear guidelines from
01:03the ministry about use of antibiotics but we are in the process of releasing guidelines for
01:12empirical use of antibiotics which is when you suspect to be having a bacterial infection.
01:20So there are two parts of this. One is that the general public should not take antibiotics
01:26on their own. It is not that I can you can decide that I am a physician so maybe I
01:33can but it
01:34is very difficult for a general public person to decide that they have a bacterial infection
01:40infection whether antibiotics are needed or not. So mostly cuffs and colds etc are viral in nature.
01:48They are self-limiting and they get well after whether you give an antibiotic or not you will get
01:54well in 4-5 days. And a lot of people take medication by themselves or they will go to a
02:02pharmacist or a chemist
02:04and say give me this some antibiotic or some medicine. Pharmacist should also not do this because it should only
02:11be
02:12given on the prescription of a doctor. We are also working with doctors to say do not overuse antibiotics
02:19only use them when they are necessary. Empirical means that normally if you take a culture then you know
02:28that there is this infection and you can treat the infection with that antibiotic. Empirical means
02:34that the patient has come to me and I have to decide before the culture results or before any
02:40laboratory results should I give antibiotic or not. So this is based on some very you know
02:46clinical science that I have for infection and only then I should give that until I am sure whether there
02:54is laboratory confirmation of infection or not. So empirical meaning before laboratory confirmation.
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