Resistance to antibiotics will be widespread unless doctors, patients and pharmacists are vigilant against the drugs' misuse, according to medical experts at a State-level seminar on ‘Infections and inflammations' here.
Inaugurating a seminar held at the Indian Medical Association Hall here on Sunday, District Collector Anand Singh said that the State was facing challenges in the health and education sectors though there was no shortage of educational institutions and health care facilities here.
Ophthalmologist B.V. Bhat presided over the function. P.P. Vasudevan and Sreeni Edakhlon, both doctors, said that if antibiotics were not used carefully, micro-organisms which cause diseases would develop resistance to the drugs. If the situation continued, there would be a lot of patients whose infection could not be controlled at all, they said.
Dr. Edakhlon, ophthalmologist, said that the rate of infection following cataract surgery (Endophthalmitis) was now extremely low — less than one in 1,000 cases. But, if antibiotics-resistance developed in such cases, the affected eye would be lost, he said.
Doctors who participated in the seminar also spoke on the importance of post-operative infection control for diabetes patients, techniques to sterilise instruments for surgery and operation theatres, care to be taken when using steroid eye drops, management of endophthalmitis, inflammatory conditions affecting eyes, among others.
Doctors M. Prasanth, P.I. Mohan, Sasikumar, R. Anil, Sree Sankar, Gopal S. Pillai, Padmanabha Shenoy and Rajiv Sukumaran took part in the seminar which was organised by the Comtrust Eye Hospital, Thalassery unit of the IMA and the Kerala Society of Ophthalmic Surgeons
