Health leaders from around the world have raised serious concerns about the growing resistance to antimicrobial drugs, which destroy harmful microbes. Although antibiotics are the best known of these drugs, there are others – such as antivirals, antimalarial drugs and antifungals.
Only a few days ago, world leaders signed a ground-breaking United Nations Declaration to tackle the “biggest global health threat”— antibiotics. Officials from 193 countries at the UN General Assembly in New York committed more than £600 million to fight against the threat that antibiotic resistant “superbugs” pose to modern medicine.
This move follows a United Kingdom-led drive to raise awareness of the potential impact of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), which England’s chief medical officer described as “the greatest future threat to our civilisation”.
While medicine can save life, it can also turn into fast killing poison if mishandled or taken without medical advice. For example, antibiotics don’t work against viral illnesses like colds and flu. But doctors often prescribe them anyway to patients looking for some kind of treatment for their respiratory infections, experts say.
Additionally, people casually purchase antibiotics from pharmacies without visiting a medical facility for diagnosis. Medical experts say self-medication can lead to a wrong prescription of genuine medicine or a reaction from a drug which can be fatal.
Studies have shown that self-medication has been cited as one of the biggest causes of drug resistance and this has been perpetuated by pharmacies which sell drugs to people without prescription from doctors. Although pharmacies are supposed to dispense medicine to someone with a prescription from medical personnel, many sell drugs to individuals without a prescription.
In Guyana, this is a common practice and only recently, a case was reported in the media of a pharmacy in Region Six where there is no certified pharmacist and where medicine is being dispensed to unsuspecting residents.
This is a dangerous situation, which should be addressed by the concerned authorities. No doubt this is not an isolated case. The red flag raised by the concerned citizen should be addressed urgently to avoid fatalities that may result from self-medication and other cases of mishandling drugs. It is risky for non-medical personnel to prescribe medication.
This is why a renewed drive should be carried out to remind pharmacists of the dangers of dispensing drugs to any one without prescription from the doctor. In the past, it was hard to get medicine from a pharmacy without first visiting a doctor, but today people just walk into a pharmacy and walk out with drugs. There is also need to sensitise the public on why they should visit a medical facility instead of resorting to self-medication.
Around 700,000 people around the world die annually due to drug-resistant infections such as TB, HIV and malaria. If no action is taken, it has been estimated that drug-resistant infections will kill 10 million people a year by 2050.
World leaders are now starting to worry about the economic threats from the problem; the World Bank this week released a report saying drug-resistant infections have the potential to cause at least as much economic damage as the 2008 financial crisis!
The UN will adopt a declaration that endorses an action plan approved last year by an international meeting of health ministers. The declaration recognises the size of the problem and encourages countries to come up with plans — and money — to cut back on antibiotic use, make better use of vaccines to prevent infections in the first place, and fund development of new drugs.
Clearly, we are in the midst of an emerging crisis and it would be wise for the Health Ministry, as per the UN’s recommendation, to design a plan of action to address the issue and educate citizens as well as remind medical personnel about the dangers associated with the use of antibiotics.
