Antibiotic Policy
Preventing antibiotic resistance is of paramount importance.
Hence all doctors, including ophthalmologists, must be aware of these points.
1. Antibiotics are not required in viral infections (acute small intestinal diarrhea, cough, cold with fever, dengue, chikungunya, mild superficial skin infections).
2. More than 50% use of antibiotics is unnecessary leading to emergence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
3.Antibiotic should be administered in proper dose, interval, duration or route of administration.
4. Antibiotic regimens should be converted from intravenous to oral administration as soon as is feasible and clinically indicated. Highly bioavailable antibiotics (IV = Oral absorption) are fluoroquinolones, azithromycin, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, metronidazole and fluconazole.
5. Restrict antibiotic administration to the minimum duration required for maximum efficacy.
6.Use of serum procalcitonin measurements has been demonstrated to provide the clinician with confidence to discontinue therapy in critically ill patients with suspected bacterial infection.
