Awareness must be created to prevent the misuse of antibiotics
THE government is going to enact a new law to prevent the misuse of antibiotics. If any pharmacy sells antibiotics without a prescription, its license will be canceled. The cabinet on August 11 approved the Drugs Act-2022 draft in principle with the provision of making it mandatory to have registered doctors’ prescriptions for purchasing antibiotics and sedatives.
As per the draft law, pharmaceuticals will have to preserve a copy of the prescription and maintain a register on the sale of such medicines. Otherwise, the owner will have to face punishment, including the cancellation of the licence. The draft act also has provisions of a maximum 10-year jail term and Tk 10 lakh fine for four types of offences. While approving the draft of the act, the cabinet also instructed the authorities concerned to make amendments.
The misuse of antibiotics is a silent killer as 15 lakh people die every year across the world due to excessive consumption of antibiotics and Bangladesh is also seeing its impacts getting worse. A study revealed that almost all clinically important and widely used antibiotics have lost their effectiveness by more than 50 per cent — a concern that can leave the population defenseless against pandemics. Most worryingly, five of the most critical medicines listed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) are progressively becoming ineffective.
Since the ill-effects of antibiotic misuse are less known, the WHO in its global action plan on AMR has advised improving awareness and understanding of antimicrobial resistance through effective communication, education and training. The WHO developed a global action plan and a manual for developing national action plans to address the issue. It suggests country-specific actions to optimise the use of antimicrobial medicines in human and animal health. Bangladesh needs an improved surveillance of antibiotic resistance, regulation of the appropriate use of quality medicines, and education about the consequences of overuse.
