ANTIMICROBIAL resistance has become a major health concern because of poor healthcare standards, compounded by the misuse and abuse of antibiotics. Antibiotic resistance results in a decreased ability to treat infection, leading to increased illness, death and an increased cost of treatment. The Global Antibiotic Resistance Surveillance Report 2025 finds that several widely used antibiotics in Bangladesh are losing their effectiveness at alarming rates. Gram-negative bacterium Acinetobacter species that causes bloodstream infections showed an alarming 97 per cent resistance to imipenem, a powerful antibiotic used as a second-line treatment for severe bacterial infections. The International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh in September reported a widespread colonisation with drug-resistant bacteria, including alarmingly high levels in newborns in neonatal intensive care units, in Bangladesh. Meanwhile, physicians have reported a sharp increase in the number of superbugs. This is a development that can leave people devoid of defence against ordinary diseases and potentially further put public health at grave risks.
Pharmacologists as well as public health experts suggest that the unregulated sales and use of antibiotics are primarily responsible for the development of antimicrobial resistance. Although antibiotics are not listed as drugs that could be sold over the counter, without prescriptions by registered physicians, pharmacies randomly sell them out of profiteering interests. Such practice is a violation of the drug control rules and regulations that are rarely enforced. The drug administration authorities say that 67.3 per cent of drug retailers had no idea of antibiotic sales restrictions and pharmacies sell them over the counter. Physicians, too, keep over-prescribing antibiotics. An estimate of the health ministry suggests that 60 per cent of patients take medicines without consulting physicians. In 2019, the High Court ordered the government to take effective action to prevent the misuse of antibiotics, but implementation has remained weak. Three years later in 2022, the Directorate General of Drug Administration instructed all manufacturers to introduce red labels on antibiotic packaging, asking consumers to not use without a registered physician鈥檚 prescription. However, many antibiotic products on the market still lack such warning labels, highlighting the continued failure of the authorities in enforcing regulations. Antibiotic resistance does not only pose a risk in terms of mortality, it also becomes a financial burden as people spend 15 per cent of their medicine cost on antibiotics in Bangladesh.
The government must, under the circumstances, strictly monitor the antibiotics supply chain and its sales. The health ministry must also consider reviewing its relevant protocols for physicians and other health professionals to stop the over-prescribing of antibiotics. The government must take action in view of the gravity of the danger for the sake of public health.
