After a visit to some private clinics in the country, you may have often scratched your head in bewilderment at the amount of medicines being prescribed by doctors.

If you’ve ever felt you were given an awful lot of antibiotic medicines unnecessarily, then chances are that it was true. Or so proves a research study commissioned by the Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC).

According to the study, nearly half of antibiotics prescribed by private clinics in Qatar may be unnecessary, reported Gulf Times.

Staff from HMC, Ministry of Public Health and Qatar University evaluated over 75,000 health insurance claims related to prescriptions for antibiotics and found that ‘45 % were for conditions which typically do not require antibiotics.’

The study, published in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases, found that misuse of antibiotics threatens the usefulness of these important drugs.

Improper use of antibiotics accelerates the emergence of drug-resistant infections, which results in an increased risk of serious illness and even death among individuals with infections caused by drug-resistant bacteria or pathogens, reported The Peninsula.

The study examined the pattern of antibiotic prescriptions for outpatients in private clinics in Qatar between May, 2014, and December, 2015, and highlighted the importance of not prescribing medications unnecessarily, such as in cases where infections are known to be self-limiting.

Professor Abdul Badi Abou Samra, Chairman of Internal Medicine for HMC, had a word of caution against overuse of antibiotics.

“Antibiotics are one of the most powerful tools we’ve to fight life-threatening infections. They can successfully combat infections that used to be fatal, like bacterial pneumonia. However the misuse and overuse of antibiotics promotes antibiotic resistance. If we continue to use them inappropriately, we’ll undermine our ability to treat patients with deadly infections and diseases,” he was quoted as saying by Qatar Tribune.

Professor Adeel Ajwad Butt, Vice Chair for Faculty Affairs, Department of Medicine and Director of the Clinical Epidemiology Research Unit at HMC, said that there had been a global increase in antibiotic resistance, which was compounded by limited number of new drugs being discovered.

“Antibiotics are an important tool in relieving symptoms of bacterial infections and can help patients recover faster. However, improper use can cause many different types of bacteria to become unresponsive to antibiotics. In recent years, resistance to antibiotics has become more common and many diseases cannot be treated as well as they could in the past,” said Professor Butt.

Patients can do their part to prevent antibiotic resistance by being cautious and only taking antibiotics when absolutely necessary and as directed by a physician. And if patients are prescribed an antibiotic, it is important to take the entire course.