The silent healthcare crisis when doctors overprescribe

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Editor's note: A few weeks ago, the city where I work was gripped by a non-COVID viral flu. Men, women and children developed fever for a day, which was followed by disabling fatigue and an annoying dry cough that bound them to their homes. The cough was far worse than the one I had seen in my patients during the last significant wave of COVID-19. This starts late at night, makes you lose sleep and keeps you groggy throughout the day. The general paediatric and adult outpatient and in-patient department services were stretched to their limits, and, intriguingly, so were my own liver OPD and IPD. So, what did the seasonal flu have to do with increased admissions and consultations in the liver department? Four words: drug-induced liver injury. Let’s connect the dots. The pressure to prescribe An acute cough lasts less than three weeks. It is commonly associated with a viral upper respiratory tract infection, and is normally benign and self-limiting. This is medically called acute bronchitis or, commonly, a “chest cold.” An acute viral cough is self-limiting, without requiring antibiotic …