Patients compel doctors to prescribe antibiotics

Dear Sir,As a  private practitioner,  I wish to share some views pertaining to the recently published article on antibiotic usage.In private medical practice one sees many patients demanding an antibiotic prescription and even insisting on a higher dosage!One patient surprised me the other day when he told me that he has already read the article about antibiotic use in the newspaper and still insisted that an antibiotic be prescribed!At times the patients are very persistent in their demand and even say that they are visiting the doctor to get the antibiotics they can’t otherwise get from the pharmacy.In these modern days people are in a hurry. Due to issues like transportation and waiting time at the clinics,  they are reluctant to revisit the doctor for a review unless there is a real need.There is another side of the story too. The low-income workers have a huge problem with transportation and leave from work to attend reviews and many reviews are either delayed or missed. For them even making a single visit to the doctor itself is very arduous. Such patients cannot be expected to attend reviews promptly and one has to make a quick decision.Patients of today are expecting a faster response in everything .. be it transportation, communication or their illness!Irrespective of the social or educational status there is a strong  belief among  patients that antibiotics only will give them a quick cure. Many tell of forthcoming meetings, examinations or assignments that cannot be missed due to illness as an excuse for the need for antibiotics. As the article mentioned factually, they don’t complete the entire dosage often.Then there are those who bring and stockpile antibiotics they used to take in their home country and self medicate without  a doctor’s advice.  In a busy private practice we try to explain and convince each and every patient at length about the usage of antibiotics. Sometimes we win.. sometimes we lose and the patient may visit another doctor.As pointed out in the article, antibiotic usage is rampant in veterinary and poultry farms and that also adds to the emergence of resistance bacteria.(Name and address provided)Supreme Court ruling welcomeDear Sir,I express my hearty congratulations to the judges of the Indian Supreme Court (SC) who ordered closure of all liquor outlets along India’s national and state highways by midnight 31st March 2017. It is a welcome decision in the light of valuing human lives above revenue loss to the state governments.While considering the case, a three-member panel of judges, including the Chief Justice of India, highlighted the importance of human lives in the largest democracy and the second most populous country in the world. It is certain that thousands of housewives who ended up as widows because of their husbands’ drunken driving would wholeheartedly welcome the SC’s landmark ruling. According to India’s ministry of road transport and highways, nearly 150,000 people were killed in 2015 in road traffic accidents. Of those, 6,755 deaths were caused due to drunken driving.The historic ruling has led to the closure of nearly 48,000 liquor shops. The court has dismissed a slew of petitions seeking a reprieve on the ban, including from state governments which had sought more time to implement the order.Also India being a signatory to Brasilia Declaration, it is imperative that policy outlines are framed to control road accidents. Reminding state governments of their obligation to prohibit liquor sale along national and state highways, the bench said that revenue generation cannot be the sole ground to let these outlets sell alcohol at the cost of  drunken driving and consequential fatalities.There is no doubt the measure will greatly contribute to safer driving in India.Elias Jacob, P.O.Box 5994, Doha, (eliasjacob@hotmail.com)Please send us your  letters By e-mai1l: editor@gulf-times.com