TAKING antibiotics without a registered doctor’s prescription is still very rampant among people of Bangladesh. Patients either on their own or at the advice of drug sellers are gulping the essential drug. Since this practice has been going on for a long time, antibiotics are losing their effectiveness to kill pathogens. The government’s Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) started surveillance over effectiveness of 18 antibiotics in 2017, and found that 11 antibiotics are now less effective against 10 pathogens. The bacteria who are known as ‘superbugs’ have shown resilience against these antibiotics that are not effective in curbing infections as they are supposed to be.
It has been revealed in the IEDCR study, that even higher classes of antibiotics are also misused. Ineffectiveness of four out of six critically important antibiotics listed by the WHO has increased up to 84 per cent during the last one year. The list includes Ceftazidime, Cefixime, Cefepime and Ceftriaxone. Azithromycin has also fallen to 53 per cent from 55 per cent while Ciprofloxacin remained at 66 per cent.
The consequence of misuse of antibiotics is very dangerous. Antibiotics are life saving drugs, and if they lose their effectiveness against lethal diseases, mortality cases from these diseases will rise inevitably. Resistance against antibiotics is a worldwide phenomenon and for quite a long time this remains a serious worry for pharmacists and physicians everywhere. In relatively underdeveloped Bangladesh, misuse of antibiotics is occurring most. But the sad part of the matter is the government as well as the community of health professionals in Bangladesh has done precious little to check the menace.
In April this year the Cabinet approved the draft of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 2023 banning the sale of antibiotic drugs without prescription from a registered doctor. According to the draft law, if antibiotic drugs are sold without the prescription, the shopper will be fined Tk 20,000.
Mere passing a law will not stop misuse of antibiotics if the law is not applied with its full force. Since the enactment of the law no one has heard that a drug seller has been fined for selling antibiotics without prescription. There is indeed difficulty in identifying such a seller, but a mechanism must be developed to find out when and how antibiotic misuse is taking place.
