UAE’s proposed law will help fight superbugs

Perhaps, we have shot ourselves in the foot time and again. The introduction of antibiotics in early 20th century virtually eliminated some widespread diseases, controlled the spread of ailments, and made surgeries and childbirth a lot safer. But our overreliance on some drugs has promoted the rise of superbugs, microbes that have grown resistance to antibiotics. The UAE Health Ministry is rightly thinking of issuing new health legislations that would discourage people from easily accessing antibiotics without medical prescription. The take-pills-firstask-questions-later approach doesn’t work. We need to be more responsible with our habits. Popping in pills for instant relief, or saving a trip to the doctor might seem fair and easy, but it isn’t. Viral infections like cold and flu should not prompt use of antibiotics. Our lazy and uninformed choices are turning out to be way too costly. New resistance mechanisms are spreading globally, and threatening our ability to treat common infectious diseases. It is resulting in prolonged illness, disability, death, increasing the cost of health care with lengthier stays in hospitals and need for more intensive care.

What’s particularly worrisome is that the research and pharmaceutical industry hasn’t been able to keep pace and introduce drugs that are capable of fighting these microbes. Dr Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization, told the UN recently that only two new classes of antibiotics were introduced in the last half a century. There’s not much incentive for pharma companies. Most of them find it more profitable to produce drugs for cancer and chronic diseases. There’s more to this issue: why should antibiotics be used as growth promoters for animals, or to prevent diseases in healthy animals? New challenges in medicine are putting at stake the gains made so far. The WHO is leading the charge and raising awareness. But only when governments take initiative at local levels and introduce stricter legislation for the use of drugs, like the UAE proposes, will we be able to tackle this problem better.