West Bengal govt issues guidelines against rampant use of antibiotics on Covid patients -Two teams of medical experts, set up by the Mamata Banerjee-led administration, have been making the rounds of the designated Covid-19 hospitals to find critical gaps in treatment protocols and bring uniformity in viral outbreak management.

Joydeep Thakur, HT, Jul 24, 2020, Kolkata : West Bengal government has issued a set of guidelines to hospitals against the rampant use of antibiotics on coronavirus disease (Covid-19) patients on the advice of its team of medical experts.

“Covid-19 is a viral disease. Antibiotics, per se, have no role in it. Do not prescribe antibiotics routinely in Covid-19 patients unless bacterial co-infection is suspected,” stated the guideline that was issued in mid-July.

Two teams of medical experts, set up by the Mamata Banerjee-led administration, have been making the rounds of the designated Covid-19 hospitals to find critical gaps in treatment protocols and bring uniformity in viral outbreak management.

“The teams found that antibiotics such as azithromycin and doxycycline were being indiscriminately prescribed along with a few other shortcomings. Later, the state health department formed a committee that drafted the guidelines of rational use of antibiotics,” said a state health department official.

The guidelines have warned against the prophylactic prescription of antibiotics to prevent bacterial pneumonia or other infections.

It has stated that antibiotics should be considered for patients with high-oxygen demand and show signs of rapidly progressing respiratory failure.

“All patients with severe Covid-19 symptoms do not require antibiotics. Initially, microbiological tests such as sputum and blood can be conducted, and later antibiotic treatment could be administered,” said one of the experts.

In June, the World Health Organisation (WHO) had warned that increased antibiotics use in combating the Covid-19 outbreak would strengthen bacterial resistance and could lead to more deaths.

“Indiscriminate use of antibiotics will not just increase the risk of anti-microbial resistance and create superbugs, but will also increase the cost of treatment,” said Dr. Sukumar Mukherjee, a member of the Global Advisory Board that has been set up to advice the Bengal government on Covid-19 management.

Senior state health department officials said that only 13% of the patients, who show severe and moderate symptoms, need to be hospitalised. The rest can be treated at home.

“As the disease is new, the government has issued some interim guidelines. These would be updated periodically,” said a state health department official.