![Pinterest](https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://uknews.evprotec.com/kumbh-mela-antibiotics-and-the-worlds-biggest-gathering-in-india/&media=https://uknews.evprotec.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/130996839_gettyimages-523583178-170667a.jpg&description=Image source, Getty Images Image caption, The weeks-long Kumbh Mela festival attracts millions of pilgrims in four Indian cities What does the biggest gathering of humanity on Earth have to do with antibiotics? Researchers from US-based institutes, supported by Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute at Harvard University and Unicef, have found that clinics at India's Kumbh Mela, a Hindu festival and the world's largest religious gathering, have prescribed an excessive amount of antibiotics to the tens of thousands of pilgrims, primarily arriving with respiratory tract infections. The more antibiotics are used, the higher the risk of developing what doctors refer to as "antimicrobial resistance". This occurs when bacteria change over time and become resistant to drugs designed to combat and treat infections they cause. Consequently, doctors face a surge in antibiotic-resistant "superbug infections". The World Health Organisation (WHO) says this poses a major "global threat" to public health. Such resistance directly caused 1.27 million deaths worldwide in 2019, according to The Lancet, a medical journal. The toll is projected to rise to 10 million deaths per year by 2050, says the WHO. Antibiotics - which are considered to be the first line of defence against severe infections - did not work on most of these cases. India has the highest rate of human antibiotic use in the world. Antibiotic-resistant neonatal infections alone are responsible for the deaths of nearly 60,000 newborns each year. Researchers say use of antibiotics was exacerbated during the Covid-19 pandemic. Image source, Getty Images Image caption, A health worker collects a nasal swab sample from a devotee during the Kumbh Mela in Haridwar in 2021 The weeks-long Kumbh Mela occurs in four Indian cities. The pilgrims take a holy dip in the river waters on the banks of the cities where the festival is held. The US-based researchers gathered data from some 70,000 patients who turned up at more than){kind=link}
What does the biggest gathering of humanity on Earth have to do with antibiotics?
Quite a bit, evidently.
Researchers from US-based institutes, supported by Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute at Harvard University and Unicef, have found that clinics at India’s Kumbh Mela, a Hindu festival and the world’s largest religious gathering, have prescribed an excessive amount of antibiotics to the tens of thousands of pilgrims, primarily arriving with respiratory tract infections.
The more antibiotics are used, the higher the risk of developing what doctors refer to as “antimicrobial resistance”. This occurs when bacteria change over time and become resistant to drugs designed to combat and treat infections they cause. Consequently, doctors face a surge in antibiotic-resistant “superbug infections”.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) says this poses a major “global threat” to public health. Such resistance directly caused 1.27 million deaths worldwide in 2019, according to The Lancet, a medical journal. The toll is projected to rise to 10 million deaths per year by 2050, says the WHO. Antibiotics – which are considered to be the first line of defence against severe infections – did not work on most of these cases.