Millions of people in Europe, North America and Australia will die from superbugs infections unless countries prioritise fighting the growing threat posed by bacteria immune to most known drugs, experts predicted Wednesday says a new research finding Read full article here. and India is catching up quickly to antibiotic overuse.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) warned of \”disastrous consequences\” for public healthcare and spending unless basic hospital hygiene is boosted and unnecessary antibiotic use slashed.
Drug-resistant bacteria or superbugs killed more than 33,000 people in Europe in 2015, according to new research published separately this week.
In a landmark report, the OECD said 2.4 million people could die from superbugs by 2050 and said the cost of treating such infections would balloon to an average of $3.5 billion (three billion euros) a year in each country included in its analysis.
\’Enormous death toll\’
As humans consume ever more antibiotics — either through prescriptions or agriculture and livestock products given medicines to stave off infection — strains of bacteria are developing that resist the effects of drugs designed to kill them which turns them into superbugs.
In low and middle-income countries, resistance is already high: in Indonesia Brazil and Russia up to 60 percent of bacterial infections are already resistant to at least one antibiotic.
How to avoid this disaster?
Ayurveda always has had an edge over modern medicine while treating infections. The modern pharmaceutical companies have been bad nothing Ayurveda for their selfish gains and to capture that market share.
The time has come for the switch from modern medicine to Ayurveda where possible.
Nadi Pariksha is a promising diagnostic science of Ayurveda that aids in evaluating the root cause of any symptom. Modern medicine has failed miserably in this front and the fraternity must find ways of adopting this science into their stream.
Ayurvedic dietetics, lifestyle changes and medicines help remove toxins from the body. They boost immunity and prepare the body to face any adversity with greater success.
Modern medicine, especially antibiotics do the reverse. They weaken the body and makes it even more dependant on antibiotics. This results in susceptibility to infections of a new kind.
The recent strain of viruses doing round in northern and southern Indian states have left doctors clueless about the infections. They thought it was malaria. Then they suspected dengue. Then they assumed it to be meningitis. It was none of these. This was a new strain of virus which was resistant to simple antibiotics.
Some doctors I personally know, whose family members had these infections, spent more money on diagnosis than on medications. The results though we\’re inconclusive. And the treatments were powerful antibiotics that were injected intravenously for faster action. The patients however, we\’re weaker than before due to the effect of antibiotics on the liver and the gastrointestinal tract.
The group, which advises the World Health Organization on public health initiatives, said the only way to avert disaster was to implement immediate, sector-wide changes in behaviour.
This must include increased use of Ayurvedic diagnostics methods such as diagnosis through Nadi Pariksha alongside pathological tests and as a first step, adopt appropriate lifestyle changes and use of herbal remedies and Ayurvedic medicines. Ayurvedic medicines are more potent and do little harm while they help the body develop better resistance to fight any new bacterial strains and viral infections. Antibiotics can followup only if required.
In trials of the technique, two thirds of patients given delayed prescriptions for antibiotics never collected their medicine. Your body learns how to fight infections when supported appropriately.
In conclusion, it is safe to prepare the body in advance with an ayurvedic pulse diagnosis and followup with appropriate diet and lifestyle modifications and approve ayurvedic medications so that the body is better equipped to defend itself from infections of the new kind.
— Mahesh Krishnamurthy
