New Delhi, Sept. 26 -- A new study by researchers from the University of Southern California (USC) and Duke University has found that many doctors in India's private healthcare sector continue to overprescribe antibiotics for diarrhea affected children - even when they know it's not required.
This problem is not due to a lack of knowledge, financial incentives, or medicine shortages. Instead, it's mostly because of a "know-do gap"- a situation where doctors know the correct treatment but don't follow it in practice.
Researchers studied 2,282 private healthcare providers in 253 towns across India. They found that at least 70 per cent doctors in such institutions prescribed antibiotics even when there were no signs of bacterial infection wh...