On antibiotics, problem isn’t just overprescribing

A country that accounts for nearly one-fifth of the world’s population and manages one of the largest public health systems cannot transform antibiotic use overnight. (Source: Pexels) 4 min readJul 30, 2026 06:30 AM IST First published on: Jul 30, 2026 at 06:30 AM IST The latest global study in The Lancet Public Health has again highlighted what infectious disease experts in India have known for years: India uses too many broad-spectrum “watch” antibiotics and too few first-line “access” antibiotics. It estimates that India’s antibiotic consumption is higher than the optimal target and that the antibiotic mix is skewed towards drugs that should ideally be reserved for more serious infections. The tendency to overuse broad-spectrum antibiotics has been documented repeatedly over the past tw